Ink Master Recap: Let the sparks fly
By Derek Paradis
On the last flash challenge of the season, artists were being tested on precision. The artists worked in teams to transform metal scraps, rods, chains, bolts, and other objects into an impressive sculpture with welding and angle grinding equipment. Coming off tattoo of the day, DJ Tambe was assigned the skulls and he chose Tony, Bob and Anthony Michaels on his team (team number 1) and assigned Gian, Angel Rose and Jason as team number two. Team number 1 created a very cool robot and named it Digits, holding a chain necklace and the precision they did to make it functional and movable is so awesome, I want to hang out with this robot. Team number two created the tree of death with leaves, an evil face in the tree and a porch swing, where the judges loved the leaves but nothing was precise on the face and tree itself and team number 1 unanimously won. “Weld” done on both sides of the field guys.
Inkmaster Flash Challenge
They say a picture is worth a thousand words but in this case, I’d say 250,000 words. I think we should buy some confetti and throw it in DJ Tambe's way as congratulatory confetti because he was the lone hero and came to the color portrait rescue. Having the advantage, DJ chose to do a color portrait of somebody’s grandmother and in the reference, it looked a little washed out and blurry but he took it on and gave this portrait life. He captured such precise details in the eyes, the glasses, the hair and even in the ribbed pattern of the turtleneck and the scarf. DJ had such amazing saturated details that it literally has the character and 100% likeness of the portrait The judges all agreed that he won his second consecutive tattoo of the day and was deemed safe. Congratulations my man on making this a stellar portrait.
Here are the three portraits that received mixed reviews: Bob chose to do a color portrait of his canvas’ son. He captured great details in the hoodie, the smile and the eyes to have warmth but the judges thought it was too light and more contrast would’ve made it stand out more; Angel Rose got a canvas who wanted a portrait of his daughter (chin hug worthy), she captured the likeness and had precise details but the judges said she missed a crease in her neck which gives it a more floating head look but it’s still so cute; Anthony Michaels chose his canvas’ late grandfather and he really did amazing with capturing the likeness of the person and as saturated as his colors were, the face was muted a little too much and a brighter color palette could’ve brought more life but I think he did a fantastic job.
If anyone went into a family photo album or Facebook memories, and they saw these three tattoos, they’d be going “who are these guys?”. The twist this episode was everyone became a jury of peers and deliberated to put three artists in the bottom. Jason was given a child portrait and he made this tattoo from a possible huggable princess of British Columbia to an almost Chucky version. The judges didn’t deliberate with him for more than 20 seconds as they deemed him immediately safe because he had some awesome details in the mouth and teeth but the hair was a little too hard. Gian couldn’t avoid being shot and this was his very first trip in the bottom ever as he was tasked to take a grandmother portrait onto the skin. It came out looking like three different ages on this person and it did not look like the canvas’ grandmother. Tony chose to do a military grandfather portrait where he nailed the chin, shirt and tie but the judges claimed it was unfinished and the lips and eyes were going the wrong way.
They say third time’s a charm but not for Tony as the judges eliminated him next. I truly think it’s commendable that Tony refused to quit and did his absolute best to pay respect for the canvas’ grandfather and he went out swinging fighting on the battlefield without a shield. I have the utmost respect for him as he did put up an amazing fight. I’m sorry to see you go but you did great my man.