Ink Master: ‘Match a Master’ Recap

By Derek Paradis

If you guys aren’t up to date on Ink Master, then prepare to have your minds blown with twists never seen before in the competition. This episode, there was no flash challenge as the artists’ adaptability was put to the test and as you know the saying, “to be the best, you have to beat the best” and believe me y’all, they never saw what was coming. The seven remaining artists went up against not one, not two, not three, but four Ink Master champions: season 2 winner Steven Tefft, season 7 winner Anthony Michaels, season 11 winner Tony Medellin, and last but not least seasons 9 and 10 winner DJ Tambe. The ask: each master called a certain style for the artists to choose from and go head-to-head against that master and if they matched or beat them, they’re safe from elimination, so Steve called surrealistic black-and-grey freehand; Anthony called illustrative with open colour palette; Tony called traditional with an open colour palette; and DJ called neo-traditional.

Steven Tefft and Creepy Jason went head to head. Steve created a horrifying demon like monster with horns with smooth gradients, contrast, composition, details and textures. Creepy Jason surprised us with his freehand by doing a surrealistic skull-head spider body with webs with intricate details, gradients, contrast, composition, and textures. They actually matched Steve’s tattoo and Jason was safe from elimination, proving he can adapt freehand and black and grey. Next we have Gian Karle who went head-to-head with DJ Tambe doing neo-traditional tattoos. DJ created a neo-traditional lady face and a bird with contrast, crisp lines, composition, textures, saturated gradients and colours, but Gian being the sneaky technician went and did a leopard that matched DJ’s quality and was safe from elimination.

Holli Marie, Angel Rose and Bob went head to head against Anthony Michaels, doing illustrative with an open colour palette. Anthony created an illustrative gangster wolf head with a scythe to tell let us know that he’s back for a vengeance and his illustration and creativity is top notch. Holli did a lady face with mushrooms, which the judges thought her creativity and illustration was beautiful but the eyes were a bit of an “eyesore”, cross-eyed so she did not quite match Anthony’s tattoo. Angel created an illustrative medusa head with snakes and the judges loved her shading, but the belly of the snakes were going in the wrong direction so that did not match Anthony’s tattoo either. The girls were up for elimination; but Bob being the creative and illustrative artist that he is, not only matched Anthony but he actually beat him at his own game with an illustrative cyberpunk Oni, a solid sticker that earned him safety.

Pon and Katie went head-to-head with Tony Medellin doing open colour palette traditional. Tony did a full body panther with solid blacks and solid fundamentals. Pon did an eagle with a heart skull mash-up and the judges loved the eagle, but some colour choices in the skull heart mash-up left questions. The judges were split in their decision and decided that Pon did not meet Tony’s tattoo and was up for elimination. On the other hand, Katie did a lady face with butterflies and she showed technical application, solid lines, solid blacks, solid colours, composition, and beauty. She matched Tony and was safe from elimination. Creative and artistic, beautiful tattoos were made by both sides of the field. There was some true amazing artistry.

Here are the three tattoos in the elimination face-off: because Angel Rose, Hollie Marie, and Pon could not match the master, they had to face-off against each other to avoid elimination. The artists were tasked to freehand their designs directly onto the skin in any style and subject of their choice and my oh my, some really cool tats were made. Angel created an illustrative “cat-erpillar” with eight cat paws and antennas. The judges thought that she really did create an amazingly cute tattoo but they said it was unfinished. Holli created an illustrative snail with the snail shell being a skull biting onto the snail’s body wearing a mullet, in honor of Holli’s mullet hairstyle, the judges said that her colors in the snail were awesome and super saturated but they said the skull was unfinished and didn’t look like the new Holli did it. And finally, Pon created a pug dog Hannya mask mash-up to show his creative side and the judges said he saturated and really made this thing bulletproof but there were anatomical errors in the horns. All three did great tattoos so there were no losers. As the elimination was about to be announced, the Master of Chaos, Dave, gave the four ink masters (DJ Tambe, Anthony Michales, Steven Tefft and Tony Medellin the opportunity to come back for the $250K prize and see if they could win a second or a third time (DJ’s won twice). Now we don’t know who’s eliminated on this episode and if any or all of the artists we saw will come back to compete so we will see how this all unfolds in the next episode.