Ink Masters

[Devious6]

My wife and I have been watching it this season, too. Ryan Ashley is from a town about 20 miles away from us.

[Sarcasm]

I did watch some earlier seasons of this, and as fun as it is, the reality show tropes became a tad too much for me personally 

[Dan]

my wife and myself look at it this way,it's silly stupid entertainment,a break from news and politics.

and we have learned more about  tattoo art and tattoos along the way,by seeing all the mistakes made.

neither of us would surely never be a "canvas" on that show.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Dan

[Hoople]

I got tattooed by Dave Kruseman yesterday, had some time to ask a bunch of questions about the show. I thought everyone might get a kick out of some of what I did think to ask.

Just woke up because the new design (posted over in new tattoo lowdown) was throbbing under the tegrederm. May not be caffeinated enough to remember all the details, but here's what I remember pre-caffeine!  

First off, Dave is a super nice guy, every bit the guy from the show. He said outright that his wife told him he had to go on and not be an asshole, which helped him stay level on the show. 

The producers are pretty typical for reality tv.  The embrace/cast for the drama, and push buttons/stir the pot off screen to make things extra dramatic.

I had read once before that the timed challenges were faked, and the artists got all the time they wanted.  Kruseman said that was not the case on Season 6, where they had very stiff time limits.  He also noted that when they do the big finale pieces, an Ink Master rep has to be there to turn the clock on and off, and to monitor while it's going on.

The critiques are one of the hardest parts on the artists.  Where we see 1-2 minutes of critique, in actuality it's about 30 minutes for a good one, and 60+ for a bad one, worse if it's really bad.  The artists do stay up on that raised stage thing all day while they're shooting but do get breaks. 

The artists only receive a small stipend weekly but are fed very well and basically catered to with whatever they want while in the house.  He specifically mentioned St. Marq requesting, and happily receiving, what I will politely call limetless supply of Jack Daniels. In additional, all the ink/needles/general supply are covered by the show.

Everyone was legitimately terrified to deal with Dave Clarke's "Wolf Head" guy. While some reactions are faked, or split from other scenes, the terror on everyone's face at Wolf Head was 100% real.

We also talked quite a bit about how the show(and other tattoo shows) tend towards the silly and dramatic, but it has lifted some of the taboos surrounding our culture, and gotten a lot of info about there about good vs bad tattoos, and practices, which is opening the door to a huge amount of new people. In Dave's experience, that's been a lot of much older folks who have secretly always wanted one.

Fun Fact: Kruseman will tell you in person that if you've seen Ink Master, and want a portrait tattoo made by him, you're either crazy or a fan of bad portraits. That tattoo didn't send him home because there were worse that day, but he totally expected to go on that one.

Fun Fact #2: James Vaugn, of Seasons 1 and 7, was Kruseman's mentor in the industry, with only 4 or so years of experience himself. Kruseman was going to be in Season 1, but they thought that there may be a conflict of interest with James' being on the show as well.

Fun Fact #3:  Kruseman told my wife, after the fact, that I was "An expert at getting tattooed." Which was F*$%ing awesome to hear!

On "current" Ink Master news, he and I both agreed that Gian Karle's male pinup was outstanding, and looked like a 70's cigarette ad!

 

Edited October 16, 2016 by Hoople

[marley mission]

@Hoople my opinion brotha but I believe what is said in the tattoo shop should stay there

you did get a nice tattoo btw

[Dan]

9 minutes ago, marley mission said:

@Hoople my opinion brotha but I believe what is said in the tattoo shop should stay there

you did get a nice tattoo btw

well,I have to say that when my wife and myself got tattooed by Oliver Peck last February , my wife and myself agreed beforehand to not discuss ink masters at all with him,we figured he gets it all the time and we didn't want to do that to him,Oliver and myself talked a lot about general bullshit the whole time though,just not his celebrity or the show,and when we get tattooed next weekend by him,it will be the same thing.

I do like to talk during a tattoo,it helps take my mind off the pain.

Edited October 16, 2016 by Dan

[Hoople]

6 minutes ago, Dan said:

well,I have to say that when my wife and myself got tattooed by Oliver Peck last February , my wife and myself agreed beforehand to not discuss ink masters at all with him,we figured he gets it all the time and we didn't want to do that to him,Oliver and myself talked a lot about general bullshit the whole time though,just not his celebrity or the show,and when we get tattooed next weekend by him,it will be the same thing.

I do like to talk during a tattoo,it helps take my mind off the pain.

 

With Oliver, I imagine it's a little different.  Running two successful shops in the Southwest, years on Kat Von D's shows, and then judging every season of Ink Master, I imagine he's pretty burned out on it in general. I know at his True Tattoo they have varied input on the show itself. (I've never seen him in the shop, just have a few from his staff.)

In this case, Kruseman brought the show up first, saying he was always excited when he got new clients who had seen the show. I mentioned that Duffy had the classiest episode of Redemption to date and he lit right up.

He got so animated talking about even little details that I don't think I was bothering him at all.  I do some press  work in and around reality TV in the L.A. area, and I'm pretty good at knowing when I'm bugging a celebrity.  

 Like you, I tend to be chatty through the painful parts.  It was a two-hour piece, and he talks while he works, so we hit a number of topics.

Did I see you say somewhere that you were getting tattooed by Oliver at Bay Area? I'll have to live vicariously through you.  I blew my budget at Desert Trip and can't swing it, or I'd be trying to get a small piece by Oliver as well.  Side note, while you're there, Ian "Jonezy" Jones is in the True Booth with Oliver, he's one of my favorite LA True Tattooers and a hell of a guy. His work is definitely worth a look, especially if you're right there.

18 minutes ago, marley mission said:

@Hoople my opinion brotha but I believe what is said in the tattoo shop should stay there

you did get a nice tattoo btw

 

I don't think anything here is technical information or even info that isn't out there in his(and other artists) post-show features/interviews. I would feel a little different if it wasn't a conversation about publically available media.  I certainly don't share shop banter or casual conversation that I've had with my artists, things get a little too Rock&Roll for general consumption.  From my own experience in press writing, I can say pretty conclusively that I left a ton of awesome inside info and a lot of banter/stuff that no one needs/wants to hear.  I cherry picked Ink Master safe stuff to share here.

Thanks! Hoping it heals as well as my last jammer. 
 

[Synesthesia]

Kruseman was at one point pretty local to me, I forget where he's relocated to recently but he still comes by to visit periodically. I'd like to get something by him someday. He was actually on my "get tattooed by" list before I even found out he'd been cast, so that was cool.

Thoughts on the most recent episode: Gian's male pin-up was really cool, definitely the winner of the bunch. With every episode, I grow to hate the women on the show more (except for Kelly, she seems decent). Every episode is just them whining and complaining, and consistently turning out mediocre at best tattoos. Their ego doesn't even come close to their skills. But hey, what else is new with this show.

[oboogie]

I knew about some of this stuff because Richard Stell told me a lot about the show and its process. He railed on Clint for a crazy long time about his shitty American traditional, and he said they only showed a tiny bit of it. Made me laugh. Arguing with Richard Stell about American Traditional means you are stupid or an asshole. Probably both.

I always liked Kruseman. Glad to hear he's nice and genuine. I thought Duffy was great on the recent Redemption episode. She was graceful in the face of a truly crazy pair of bitches.

[pidjones]

Having recently divorced (from Comcast TV), we are now using Kodi and Sling for a lot of TV viewing. So, I found Spike on it and watched last night, but went to bed (hey, I'm old and still working) during the latest episode. Two years of not watching and I have to say that the tattoo quality has gone down a lot! That one pinup of the guy's wife (the girl with the bob) was awful. Thought the cartoonish pinup of the curvy lady was flattering and pretty good, though.

[Synesthesia]

So spoilers I guess...

...

Ryan won. I'm irritated. Almost every episode it seemed like she did black and gray stuff, her specialty. I thought Gian was overall the strongest competitor (never in the bottom, versatile in every style) and thought he deserved the win. The girls in general imo were way too egotistical and their skills just didn't match up. I am really irritated though that they didn't even show Kelly's final chest piece. Why ask her to do all that work and put in all that time and make the client suffer all those hours if it won't even appear on TV. And the fact that they penalized Kelly for doing new school when AMERICA VOTED FOR HER TO DO IT.

[Dan]

55 minutes ago, Synesthesia said:

So spoilers I guess...

...

Ryan won. I'm irritated. Almost every episode it seemed like she did black and gray stuff, her specialty. I thought Gian was overall the strongest competitor (never in the bottom, versatile in every style) and thought he deserved the win. The girls in general imo were way too egotistical and their skills just didn't match up. I am really irritated though that they didn't even show Kelly's final chest piece. Why ask her to do all that work and put in all that time and make the client suffer all those hours if it won't even appear on TV. And the fact that they penalized Kelly for doing new school when AMERICA VOTED FOR HER TO DO IT.

I agree.

[Hoople]

19 hours ago, Synesthesia said:

 Why ask her to do all that work and put in all that time and make the client suffer all those hours if it won't even appear on TV. And the fact that they penalized Kelly for doing new school when AMERICA VOTED FOR HER TO DO IT.

 

2nd year in a row that I honestly think the best piece of the day wasn't even allowed to compete.  Kelly's American Traditional chest was amazing.  I guess they spent the time that they normally would give the third finalist to Dave hanging from hooks and trying to find a way to make that mics sound less like a hot mess in the new finale studio...

Bonus points for Oliver taking a huge dump on the (yes, admittedly controversial) watercolor style and every artist who works in it with those "This is how real tattooers do watercolor.." rant.

[Devious6]

This was the first season I've watched so I don't have the perspective that others do. I'm also biased because Ryan is a local artist so I was happy to see her win for that reason. It did seem to me that the finale process was flawed in bringing three artists having had them all do major pieces, only to eliminate one of them based on the live work they did that day.

Still, I enjoyed the season since, as a newcomer to tattooing, it gave me a chance to learn a lot about the craft by listening to the judging process.

Oh, so I guess you don't want to see a picture of my personalized/signed coaster that Ryan did for me? 

[AverageJer]

19 hours ago, Synesthesia said:

So spoilers I guess...

...

Ryan won. I'm irritated. Almost every episode it seemed like she did black and gray stuff, her specialty. I thought Gian was overall the strongest competitor (never in the bottom, versatile in every style) and thought he deserved the win. The girls in general imo were way too egotistical and their skills just didn't match up. I am really irritated though that they didn't even show Kelly's final chest piece. Why ask her to do all that work and put in all that time and make the client suffer all those hours if it won't even appear on TV. And the fact that they penalized Kelly for doing new school when AMERICA VOTED FOR HER TO DO IT.

Also, go to Kelly's instragram. Her chest piece would have won. It's not perfect but it was good. In general I found her to be the most likable contestant. Although Gian was probably the best overall tattooist and plenty likable. 

[oboogie]

Gian should have won of the final two. Sorry, but a big fat NO to Ryan. I liked Kelly most of the time, and I think she is very talented, but the whole women's alliance was deeply stupid. You are either good or you aren't. Woman schmoman. And I say this as a woman. Naw. Just tattoo and stop talking about your gender.

[Colored Guy]

There is a lot of debate on artists not working on styles that they are not comfortable with. Most have a certain style that certain clients look for. Why risk a poor execution of a style you are not familiar with? This is what bothers me about the show.. or one of the many things. 

[lape]

Why the hell does viewers get to vote on anything? It's stupid to make the contest into a popularity thing, considering that few in of the viewers know jack shit about tattooing... If the judges would assign the live tattoos to be something they know the artist isn't comfortable with, I think the end result would have been way more interesting. If you're supposed to be Ink Masters you should consistently be able to do any style of tattooing without flaws- it's a huge ask but that comes with the title of "master" in my opinion.

Kellys move to assign them with 90s hot rods and watercolor was gangster. Loved it.

[pidjones]

Agreed. If they want to crown a "black and grey" ink master, have a competition for it, and if a contestant tries to sneak a colorful new school through - no matter if it is a bad tattoo or not - eliminate them! An "Ink Master" should be able to handle any style, and without talking the customer into having it placed on an easier spot. I wonder if they spent an hour with the cameraman for each show filming coy looks from Ryan to insert here and there.

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

[suburbanxcore]

23 hours ago, lape said:

Kellys move to assign them with 90s hot rods and watercolor was gangster. 

More bendy chrome, please.

[Aarku]

I enjoy the series but that might be because I fast forward most of it and just watch the parts where they are actually doing tattoos and challenges (if the challenge looks interesting)
I got sick of all the fake fights.

[Colored Guy]

I usually tune in the last 20 minutes, but forget what time and day the show is on.

[oboogie]

It feels like they are setting up Cleen to win. Ugh. He's so dopey.

[viezure]

I think Cleen definitely deserves to finally win :)

[SteelByDesign]

I know this is an old thread but I'm new to this place and been exploring around the forum.

I asked my artist about the show because while the drama is lame I love watching the "flash challenges" just to see creative people come up with cool stuff in a medium they're usually totally unfamiliar with. 

Anyway, he told me he'd applied to be on the show several times and they actually told him he'd been selected to be on season 5, which was the "Rivals" season. He was all ready to go and I guess they called and were like "hey, do you have any rivals in the industry? Like someone you really hate?" And he was like ummm no? And they were basically like "well do you know someone that tattoos locally that you could pretend to hate?" and he told them no, he's not into a bunch of drama and they passed on him at that point. Sad.