"Male announcer:" "This season on "Ink Master,"" "it's Peck versus Nuñez." " Let the games begin." "announcer:" "Two elite teams of hand-picked artists have been battling it out." " We're mano a mano." "What if my team takes you all the way down to your last two?" " Then my last two people will be in the finale." " May the best team win, buddy." "announcer:" "Alliances formed across team lines." " All of us together are better than any of those dudes." "They pick one person and go after them, and they're plucking them off." " It's gonna be thrilling watching you do the skull pick." "Vengeance will be had." " I'm telling you right now, you got to cut the head off this [bleep]." " It's done." "announcer:" "And the battle of the sexes was on." " The girls are getting tighter every day." " I want to beat the [bleep] out of these boys." " The winner of today's flash challenge is Nikki." " Thank you." " Stop playing the [bleep] vagina card." ""It's so hard for a girl to be a [bleep] tattoo artist."" "I'm over the [bleep] head games." "I'm done with this [bleep] game." "I'm walking the [bleep] up out of here." "I'm going out like a [bleep] G." " So close to the end, though." " I'm a little annoyed." "announcer:" "Now three artists from each team are left standing, ready to fight to the finish." " The competition's not getting any easier from here on out." " Half of us are going for elimination next time." " And half of us right here are gonna be in the finale." "Everybody wants to be in the finale, and everybody wants to win this thing." " It's like playing Russian Roulette." "We have to work together as a team, but in the end, it's every man for himself." " I feel like it's time for a female Ink Master." " My strongest competition are also my closest allies." " I like competition, and the bigger, the better." "narrator:" "Six artists remain, but only one will earn a $100,000 prize and the title of Ink Master." "[rock music]" "♪" " We now make up half of the remaining competitors." "We've got this." " If we do get a skull pick," "I think we really need to figure out who we want to gun for." " Gian is a major problem." "He's such a hard target." "I mean, how many times do we have to try to knock him to the bottom?" " Maybe we should just shoot for Kevin and Nate." " We just have to send one of those boys home, and we guarantee that there is a woman in the finale." "And then we send another home, and then we send another home." "♪" " Welcome." "Six of you remain." "Three on Team Peck, and three on Team Nuñez." "Chris and Oliver are each relying on you to get a win for their team." "And this week, we're testing... accuracy." " Accuracy is basically making sure that every precise, teeny-tiny detail is exactly where it needs to be." " For this flash challenge, you must build an enormous image... by stacking hundreds of bricks." "You must place colored concrete bricks, one on top of the next, using their colors to bring a massive" "10-foot by 10-foot image to life." " I could probably have a heart attack at this one." " Accuracy is crucial." "One misplaced brick can distort your entire image." "If you misplace one brick on the bottom of your design and realize it when you're in the middle, there's no taking those bricks out." "You are screwed." " To lighten your load, you must work in pairs." "Nikki, you won the last elimination tattoo, so you get to assign the pairs." "This is the first time you can pair any two artists regardless of the team." "Look out for yourself, and be strategic." "I've been on fire, and I cannot afford to let that stop now." "I need to have my own back, but I can also look out for my girls." " Artists, one by one, please read the number on the bottom of your skull to determine who you will be working with." " Two." " Two." "This was one of the smartest decisions" "Nikki has made." "If I win this thing with her," "I'm not gonna be able to shoot at the girls." "[bleep] is gonna be a royal rumble." " Three." " One." "I don't trust Nikki, but I know Nikki." "I'm about to be with Nate Beavers today." " One." " Three." "Oh, Nikki." "If you had just put a girl on every team, you would be guaranteed a girl would win the skull pick." " Okay, those are the pairs." "The winners of the flash challenge will have the power to assign all human canvases in the elimination tattoo." "You have six hours to show your accuracy by building a massive brick wall." "And your time begins... now." " All right, Nikki." " Man, what are your ideas?" " This is not something that any of these artists ever do." "Stacking these bricks is gonna be a tough test of accuracy." "You basically have to create a large pixilated item out of different colored bricks." " We need to fill the entire thing." " I thought about a ship." "This is not only creating art, but it's actually putting a level of manual labor into the game." "This is gonna be fun." " I was thinking, like, maybe, like, a candle or something." " Oh, yeah." " If we do black in the background." "Yes!" " Uh, uh!" "[laughter]" " Okay, yes." " Great." " What the hell are we gonna do, dude?" " We're not dealing with organic shapes, and we can't make curves that easily." " Honestly, maybe, like, a really traditional large piece, like a sacred heart." " This could work." " Okay." " A sacred heart could be really cool." " Right, a simple two, two." " Yep." " Four more hours." " Tap those out, and make them continue that line." " If anybody needs a skull pick, it's definitely me and Nate." "We've been the underdogs, and I work hard." "It's not a black thing;" "it's not a gay thing." " One blue, one white." "I do my best to present good work, regardless of what I had to overcome to get here." "Getting hot out here." " How does Nate manage to sit for every challenge?" " Three hours to go, guys." "Three hours." " I am getting bruises all over." " Uh-oh, what are they doing?" "Look at what those little bastards are doing." " Oh..." "Damn it." " Of all the images in the world, we're both doing sacred hearts?" "And that's the team I did not want to win." " Well, it's good for me if they win, so..." " The only thing I'm counting on is that their green thorns look all [bleep] up and weird." "Now it's just gonna be, "Who's sacred heart is better?"" "I knew I should have spread all of us bitches apart." " Oh, no, you done [bleep] up." " Who knows?" "Maybe the girls will do better than both of us." "What the [bleep] are they making?" " Look at me." "Do I look like the type of person that excels at manual labor?" "My hands are tender and doughy." "Do you ever just fail at something, and you're like, "This is fine"?" " I think I just got [bleep] on." "I definitely just got [bleep] on." " Five, four, three... two, one." "That is it, time is up." "Bricks down, no more masonry." " Damn." " [bleep] busted our asses with that one." " Yeah, we did." " [groans] [bleep]." " Nate and Kevin." "Of course I underestimated them." " Too bad they copied us." "If Nate and Kevin get the skull pick, they're definitely gonna come after me." "Me and Gian need to win this." " All right, Kelly and Ryan, what was your idea here?" " It's a candle." " As far as recognition of, "Boom, that is a candle,"" "it's kind of a blank." "Definitely looked a lot different in my mind." " Honestly, ladies, once you've come up with a creative design, thenit's just strict by number." "Could have come up with something a lot more interesting and a lot more dynamic." "You fall pretty short." " We failed all over the place." "Nikki and Gian have to win to ensure that the girls get a skull pick." " Nikki and Gian." " The accuracy on this shows in the recognizability." "From a mile away, you can tell exactly what it is." "You can read what the lettering is." "I like the fact that you used the natural brick to break up your actual color, so it wasn't so rainbow bright." " The white in the center of the flame gives it that little three-dimensional shape." "You could have done some of that with all the black outline." "Would have been a cool touch too." " Nate and Kevin." " You are the only team that used all six colors." "The recessed and pushed-out bricks for the thorns really look cool, definitely gives it something extra." " Accuracy, you hit it out of the park." "You have matching areas all the way throughout." "Everything is symmetrical." "I love the highlights in the heart, shape of the flame, and most of all, I like the rays emanating out." "That took a lot of careful consideration and a lot of careful planning, accuracy." "You did a great job." " Your heart against their heart," "Nate and Kevin's is the one that stands out strong." " Do we even need to go deliberate?" " No." " We have a pretty clear-cut winner today." " Yeah." " We have never not had a deliberation for a flash challenge." "I don't think it's ever been this clear-cut." "The judges have decided the winners of today's flash challenge are Kevin and Nate." " This is the best possible scenario." "I'm sick and tired of getting the bad skull picks." "We are definitely hitting the girls and hitting them hard." " In this competition right now, as tight as it is, three people guaranteed to go to the finale, if you want to be one of the top three, somebody's gonna have to fight for this," "'cause the people that don't fight are going home." " Kevin and Nate, you have the power to assign all human canvases for the elimination tattoo together." " I am so shocked that that lazy mother [bleep] is winning this challenge." "How did he do this while he was sitting on his ass?" "I'm dead." " You can all head back to the loft." " Hit the key players." " Nikki needs to be taken out." "If they're not me or you, everybody's getting [bleep]." "I'm the only one that doesn't do portraits." "I'm [bleep]." "[rock music]" "♪" " Everybody thought we were gonna drop the ball." " That was the sweetest victory." "It couldn't have come at a better time." " Now is the time for us to be in charge and hit the key players, because this might be our only shot at changing the game." " If I can [bleep] everybody in this house, everybody in this house will get [bleep]." " But no matter what, it's got to be one of the girls that go down." " Nikki needs to be taken out." "Nikki has come for me so many times, and you." " I mean, Nikki's at the top of the list." "But I think we should keep it a little bit on the cool with Gian." " Why try to save anybody, you know what I mean?" " True." " At this point, with six of us in the house, everybody's open game." " Yeah." " If they're not me or you, everybody's getting [bleep]." "Everybody." " Welcome." "Half of you will go home empty-handed, but half of you will earn a spot in the live finale and a shot at $100,000, a feature in "Inked" magazine, and the title of Ink Master." " And also on the line, a guest spot at Chris' shop," "Hand Crafted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or Oliver's shop, Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas, Texas." "And today we have a very special guest judge." "Tattooing for over 20 years, he's the owner of Classic Tattoo and Saltwater Tattoo Supply," "Mr. Tim Hendrix." " Tim Hendrix is a tattoo superstar." "It is intimidating having him in the same room, let alone judging us." " How are you guys?" "I've been tattooing 25 years." "I started when I was 15." "I like to think that I'm the kind of tattooer that can do any style." "To be an Ink Master, you have to be good at everything." "You can't just specialize in one thing." " For this elimination tattoo, you must tattoo the ultimate test of accuracy:" "A portrait." " [bleep]." "Portraits, my Achilles tendon." "I'm [bleep]." " Sweet." "Hell yeah, portrait day, that is my day." "I don't see anybody in this house beating me on a portrait challenge." " And today your canvases want portraits of toddlers." " Toddler portraits are so much more difficult than normal portraits, because the proportions have to be very round and soft." "Otherwise, you can age the image and make it look like somebody that it's not." " But that's not all." "You'll be tattooing head-to-head with another artist, because two canvases want each portrait." " What?" " And that means your work will be compared directly with another artist, and any error will be apparent." " Tattooing the same portrait against another artist, there's nowhere to hide any discrepancies." "This is by far the hardest thing we have had to do yet." " Head-to-head competitions, it's a true apples-to-apples comparison." "Down to this final six, where anybody could really go home, this is gonna be a real battle." "It could be any man's game." " [bleep]." " Let's meet your canvases." "Nate and Kevin, you won he flash challenge." "That means that you have the power to assign the canvases." "That also means that you will determine which artists are tattooing head-to-head." "So be strategic." "Kevin is the perfect person to share the skull pick with." "I don't think teams matter anymore." "We're both on board for knocking out the people that need to be knocked out." " I'm a portrait artist." "That's what I do day in and day out." "If there's a bad canvas for all of them, then so be it." " I want it to be more focused on his face." "I really want the dimples to shine." "Black and gray, please." " I want color." " Are you set on color?" " I'm kind of picky." " I do not want this canvas." "I think it's a washed-out picture." "there's no detail to go off from." "It's gonna be really hard to use." " I want a black-and-gray realistic photo on my back." " I would like a black-and-gray portrait of him on my chest." " How many tattoos do you have?" " Not one." " [gasps]" "It's this guy's first tattoo." " Oh..." "I definitely do not want that chest piece." "They hurt a lot." " Where you looking to get it at?" " On my upper arm." "Photo-realistic color." " I'm also going with photo-realistic color on my back." "If this is the canvas I get," "I could really be screwed." " What are you thinking?" " Put two people up that are really good against each other so one of them goes down." " Who do you want to go up against?" " And I'm definitely doing color today." " Okay." " Let's do it." " First tattoo." " First time." " Okay, canvases, one by one, please read the artist's name on the bottom of your skull." " Kelly." " [laughs]" " Nikki." " Nate." " Gian." " Kevin." " Ryan." "I'm sweating because I can't do color realism on a toddler portrait." " You will have six hours to tattoo a portrait of a toddler." "Based on your work, one of you will close shop." "Good luck." " When you're doing a portrait of a specific person, accuracy is everything." "If the details aren't there, it's the wrong person." "Now the teams are three and three." "That means three people are going to the finale, and three people are going home." " I'm gonna reference from this picture." " I feel pretty safe that Team Peck is gonna have representation in the finale." " I think his little plaid shirt is adorable, and I would definitely include that." "If I can convince this canvas to switch to black and gray," "I can flip this entire thing around on Kevin." "I am a portrait artist." "I do portraits regularly." " That's wonderful." " Yeah." " That's such good news." "Great." " But I do black-and-gray portraits." " I see that you do add some color." "So that's an option maybe?" " Color tattoos don't age as well as black-and-gray." " Well, it looks like you can still make the eyes bright, which is what I want." " Yeah." " And I wanted bright eyes, and you can do that with black and gray?" " Oh, absolutely." "If I'm doing black and gray on portrait day, kiss your ass good-bye, Kevin." " So I know you want it in the chest." "This is your first tattoo, right?" " Yeah." " But I think we should change that spot, man." "I'm super nervous right now." "Everybody here does portraits every other day." "I don't do portraits that often." "Got this dip here, you know, and then we're gonna have to go so small around it." " Yeah, right." " Man, I would recommend..." "I know the chest is cool to have, like, portraits on it." "But, man, I would really recommend we do it somewhere else." " My canvas is giving me a hard time on switching the portrait." "What are the chances I can convince you to do this on the thigh?" " No?" "This is a do-or-die moment for me." "I mean, I really do think" "I could be leaving "Ink Master" today." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " Hi." "You gonna win this thing?" " I don't know." "I haven't done many, like, color faces, but..." " You're gonna do color?" " Yeah, I don't want to a black-and-gray portrait right next to Kelly's black-and-gray portrait." " Don't stress tattooing next to her." "She has a totally different style." " Yeah, you're right." " If I was gonna get tattooed by you," "I would get black and gray." " All right, well, I'd rather listen to you guys." "After hearing that..." " What do you think?" " I think I want to give them what they want to see." "You know?" " Let's do black and gray." " Really?" " Yeah." "Just win." " What's going on?" " How you doing, bud?" " So what are you thinking?" "Obviously full color, huh?" " Yeah, for sure." " I'm just not a color portrait person." " Yeah, I'm excited about it." "Kevin hasn't taken my advice throughout this competition, and if he doesn't want to listen to me," "I'm done giving it to him." "All right." " Right on, man." " Good luck, guys." " Thanks." " Okay, artists, you have six hours to tattoo an accurate portrait of a toddler." "And your time starts... now." " Let's do this." " Just sit there on the edge here." " Let's get this stencil on." " Okay." " This is a great test of accuracy, because you have different fabrics expressions, hairstyles, you have hats." "Any little difference from the photo can change these portraits into somebody else fast." " I wanted to make sure, like, A, it fits the area." "Plus, this way, I get to get all that detail in his eyes." " Right now, I think that I still am in a pretty good seat with my top three players." "And that still leaves me in a good position to battle on." " Stencil doesn't look that good, does it?" "I'm the only one that doesn't do [bleep] portraits." "I feel like I'm overthinking my design." "I have way too much detail in it." "I'm just gonna scratch the whole thing." "I'm gonna start over again." "[tattoo machine buzzing]" " Yeah, that's kind of weird." "Gian's freaking out right now." "This is the best possible scenario for me." "I do portraits all the time." "I don't see anybody in this house beating me on a portrait challenge." " [moans slightly]" " Yeah." "I took a big risk, playing my strategy the way I did, staying in that middle ground." "Now that things are heating up," "I need to step it up and start winning." " Artists, you have five hours left." "Five hours remaining." " I decided to go up against Ryan because I've never seen her do anything color-realism before." "But, of course, she convinced her canvas to do black and gray." "I do portraits all day, so I'm confident enough to go against anybody in this challenge." "So we're the only ones doing color." " No one else is?" " She was the only one." " Judges can say everyone took easy street, black and gray." " They're not gonna say that." " No?" " I know the judges hate color portraits." "I'm gonna do it anyway." " Three hours to go, guys." " Everyone in this competition knows that I'm a new-school artist." "But what I tried to make sure they didn't know is that I'm also an award-winning black-and-gray portrait artist." " God, it's so cute." "Ours are definitely done completely different." "Definitely." "Kevin and Nate want to see me and Nikki go head-to-head, because they're afraid." "And this might be their only opportunity to get one over on the girls." "Kelly's an amazing artist, and I don't want her to come out on top against me." "The pressure is on right now." " Yeah, you went for it." " Well..." " Good." " If I did something that you guys didn't want and then did badly," "I'd just feel like an idiot." "[chuckles]" " This is your final hour." "One hour left." " What do you think?" " Everybody's going real slow." "I mean, Gian has basically just started." " Well, he re-drew his stencil." " And how long did that take?" " Yeah, it's been a while." " That's crazy, right?" "I think Nate's gonna be able to do a portrait, but I don't think it's gonna be as strong." " As much of a punch." " Yeah, like, he can't compete with what Nikki's got going on." "Nobody has that black like Nikki has." " Yeah, like Nikki." "That's my horse." " Yeah, I would bet on that horse." " If you got one person trying to get in the finale for Team Nuñez, that's the one." " This still feels like neck-and-neck right now, with... as far as teams, you know?" " There was a time that Team Nuñez seemed to have a little bit of the upper hand..." " Hey, hey..." " But not now." "I've been proactive with my team, and I think it's paid off." " Yeah." " Hey, that's not nice." " I'm predicting at least two members of Team Peck in the finale." " Yeah?" " Yeah." " Yeah, but who's gonna do the guest spot?" "[laughter]" " 15 minutes, guys." " Oh, my..." " God damn." " My tattoo is not looking exactly as I had planned." "Because that photo was so light," "I have to put shading in there that's not necessarily in the photo." "I know it's solid, but it may not be as accurate as it could be." " Five, four, three... two, one." "That's it, time's up, machines down." "No more ink." " Oh, my God, that's gorgeous." "You got everything." " Yeah." " It's perfect." " Yeah, it's pretty sick." "Good job." " Kevin's tattoo looks kind of like an old man, with weird striped taffy candy laid on his head like a wig." "I can confidently say my portrait is way more accurate than Kevin's." " You do miss some key points in this." " Calm down." " You calm down;" "are you kidding me?" " Every time y'all get a critique, oh, the world's ending." " Bull[bleep], you're not picking favorites." " You can't be mad at this [bleep]." " Come on, Gian." "[rock music]" "♪" " What tattoo would you rather have on your body," "Nikki's or Kevin's?" " For me, Kevin's tattoo does look like the kid." "Kevin's tattoo makes that kid look like he's, like, a weird old man." " Nikki's looks one step away from being a zombie portrait." "The hair is [bleep] jacked." "It's too dark." "The [bleep] T-shirt looks like [bleep]." "That tattoo doesn't look at all like the kid, not even a little bit." "And if it goes down to accuracy," "Nikki should go home for that tattoo." " Today we were testing accuracy with toddler portraits." "Each of you went head-to-head with another artist on the same portrait." "Let's see how you did." "Nikki." "You tattooed the same portrait as Kelly." " I can see the resemblance of the kid, but I think the likeness is a little bit off." "That face is really, really, really washed out, and I knew I'd have to kick up the contrast a lot, and that could really sway away from the likeness of the kid." " You missed a lot of light tones." "And it's extremely bright right below his eyebrow." "It's so contrasted." " To me, the area where this thing strays is how bright the eyes and lips are." "The sparkle over-does it." "You put that highlight in the top of the lip, it gives it a lipstick feel." " I really think that this looks little Little Miss Teen Toddler." "Put a wig on it, put it in a little tutu, she's done up for the pageant." " Kelly, you tattooed the same portrait as Nikki." " Kelly does capture the likeness of the child, which actually kind of surprises me, because you changed a lot." "You did give the chin definition." "You closed the mouth." "There's no teeth." "You also went a little too dark right here with the dimples." "It just pinches that mouth really tight in there." " Why did you change it?" " Honestly, I didn't want it to look like he had a snaggletooth." "But he does have a snaggletooth in the photo." "Even though you took some liberties, you captured that baby face." "The left side of the face, you let the sun hit that side of the hair." "The subtle little touches really work." " So who gets the win?" " Nikki's missed it on the likeness in a lot of areas." "The accuracy is a little bit off." "Kelly, on all fronts, gets it." " I would say Kelly." " Kelly gets it." " The judges have decided." "The winner of this head-to-head is Kelly." " Thank you." " Damn it." " Nate." "You tattooed the same portrait as Gian." " Nate, you captured the likeness." "I like the way that you captured the little indention on the top of the nose, and the really subtle highlights in the eyes and that little glimmer is perfect." " I love the way you put a line right on his hand." "Normally a lot of people won't do that, and it gets washed out." "Accuracy, it hits the mark." " Thank you." " Gian." "You tattooed the same portrait as Nate." " Overall, man, you definitely captured the likeness of the kid." "You have some very nice powdery grays throughout the face that really let the natural shape of the contour come alive." " But I find a lack of accuracy in a lot of places." "You simplified the ear immensely." "You didn't come in and line the teeth." "And on a day where accuracy is pinpointed, you do miss some key points in this." " Who took it down between Gian and Nate?" " Nate hedges Gian out, in my book." "The shading on the child's right side under the hat, that darkness on Gian's creates a shape of the head that doesn't exist." "Yeah." "Nate got the shape of the child's head perfectly." " Unanimously, it's Nate." " Judges have decided." "The winner of this head-to-head battle is Nate." " Congratulations, man." " Thank you." " Kevin, you tattooed the same portrait as Ryan." "This was the hardest one of the portraits to do." "I wouldn't have chose this photo." "It's not an easy one." " Color portraits is a thing that I honestly enjoy, so..." " The colors that you picked are very much the color of your canvas' skin." "So when this thing does heal and washes out, you're gonna have really strong eyes, a strong bottom of a nose, and some really heavy blue lines." "The color play in this is what really throws it." " I don't think you did a correct representation of the hair in the photo." "You have this slick part, and then he has these hairs that are flowing over." "You don't have any inference of that." "And then you have these slick loops that look like pudding swirl." "This doesn't look like hair at all." " Ryan, you tattooed the same portrait as Kevin." " It's a very slick, smooth tattoo." "A lot of great technical ability in there." "The detail work in the shirt is very nice, but where accuracy really counted was in the eyes and that upper lip." "The darkness under the eyes got a little bit too dark, and you dramatized the little peak in his lip too much." " The hair looks a little bit animated, like a comic book." "It just takes a little bit of the life out of it." "The other thing that gets me is that the right eye has more of a "V" to it in your portrait than a soft, subtle roll." "Those are soft little details that you missed, but on accuracy day, those are the things to point out." " In terms of accuracy, there are areas where both of them really succeeded and areas where they both lost it." "I think Ryan's hair is more accurate." "I think Ryan's shirt is more accurate." "I think Kevin's face is more accurate overall." " These two are definitely challenged, and that's making it hard to even come up with a winner." "I think Ryan's is nicer as a tattoo." "And technically, it's a lot smoother." " Me, personally, I'd rather wear Ryan's tattoo." " My vote's for Ryan." " Ryan." " All right, winner of this head-to-head challenge is Ryan." "Congratulations." "You okay, Ryan?" "What are you thinking?" " I just feel like that was kind of brutal." "Nate and Gian didn't get such a brutal critique on theirs." "I can look at Nate's tattoo or Gian's tattoo and pick apart a bunch of little things that were really inaccurate." " There were so many more areas of your guys' portrait to be nitpicked." " What's just frustrating is..." " What's frustrating is you've had nothing but good critiques throughout a lot of this competition, and you've had plenty of mistakes too." "But now that you're getting critiqued, now you know how it feels." "You or Nikki, every time y'all get a critique, oh, the world's ending." " Oh, my God, Nate, I'm not saying that." " You know, like, get over it." " I'm saying I think that you guys got a really awesome critique, and that you didn't deserve all of this smoke blown up your ass." " Okay." " I didn't think your tattoos were that good." " All right, guys, time to determine who had the best tattoo of the day." " I'm leaning towards Kelly." " I'm leaning towards Nate in terms of just looking like the kid." "It's got to be between Nate and Kelly." " Kelly's, I don't think so." "If you guys are going for accuracy," "Nate's looks like the picture." " Fair is fair." "Sheer accuracy," "Kelly, you changed the mouth, so, all things considered, Nate." " Tim, final decision." " On sheer accuracy, Nate." " Oliver." " Nate." " My vote is for Nate." "The judges have decided that the best tattoo of the day goes to Nate." " Thank you." " As the jury of peers, all of you must deliberate to put one artist up for elimination." "So choose wisely." "Head back to the loft." " Oh, man." " That [bleep] critique was bull[bleep]." " Ryan and Kevin got the harshest critique." "We can agree on that." " [bleep] that, they [bleep] rode me." "They said my tattoo had..." " Gian, they did not ride you, I assure you." " What?" " No, they did not." "You and Nate got the easiest critiques." " The judges went easier on Kelly and Nikki." " Did you not see how much they tore apart each of our tattoos?" " Not really, man." "I mean, they could have... if..." " Come on, Gian." " If I would have done..." " This is baby's first harsh critique, and now you're bummed about it." " It is." "You've been getting it real [bleep] easy." " Then why... how do I..." " And you think it's unfair." " Guess what, we all [bleep] feel that way every time we get reamed." " Chris goes up there and tells me," ""Oh, your tattoo has accuracy problems,"" "which I think is bull[bleep]." " You're acting like a toddler right now." "[dramatic music]" " We're the jury of peers, and we're here to find out who's going down for elimination." " Well, let me talk a little bit about accuracy." "In Kevin's tattoo, the nose is too harsh and too angled." "The eye on the right is droopy." "The hair on top looks like it has stripes in it." "Neither of the stripes are the color of the little boy's actual hair." "So... next." " My thing is, when you just generally look at the picture next to the reference, it looks like that boy." "In all honesty, please." " My vote is for Nikki, because I'm going for the accuracy." " Oh, Jesus [bleep] Christ, really?" " Why are you mad about that?" " I mean, you can't be mad at this [bleep]." "I'm not mad when..." " I can roll my [bleep] eyes if I want to roll my [bleep] eyes." " You didn't hit the challenge as hard as mine." " Kevin, your nose is gonna be gone in two weeks." " And yours is forever not gonna look like that little boy, forever." " That's... that's true." "I'm not trying to pick favorites here." " Bull[bleep] you're not picking favorites right now, Gian." " I'm not." " We don't have a team." "Who do you got?" " I'm voting for Kevin." " Really, that's what you really think?" "I thought this was all unbiased." " Never, ever question my integrity again, Nate." " You're gonna say that that looks like that kid?" "It doesn't look like that kid, but I don't think that Kevin's looks like that kid either." "Now I have to go to artistic and technical, and that's where Nikki is edging out in front of Kevin for me." "And it's based entirely on the merits of each tattoo." "It has nothing to do with anything personal." " So today we're judging accuracy with portraits of toddlers." " I thought they were all good tattoos." "But it's the tiny little things in portraits that separate good tattoos from great tattoos." " So who's in the bottom today?" "I mean, we're gonna have to bring three people down." "Kevin's hair and shirt, that's one in the bottom." "Nowhere does it really look like hair." " It looks like a statue." " Right." " And Ryan, that is not the kid." "That hair is made up." "And so is the nose, so is that right eye." " I do not have a problem bringing Ryan to the bottom, and I do not have a problem bringing Nikki to the bottom." "The eyes have been changed." "The mouth is totally inaccurate." "She just highlighted the wrong [bleep]." " I don't know, man." "Look at the chin." "That's a chin of a male model." " This is an interesting day because we are going to have three artists in the bottom on portrait day who each did a pretty great portrait." " Wow, it's gonna get heated." " Yeah." " Really heated." " Tough day, peers." "We'll see what happens." " All right, guys." "Jury of peers, who are you sending down for elimination?" "♪" " We are undecided between Nikki and Kevin." " Three against three." "Then we'll see Nikki, Kevin, and Ryan... and everybody else downstairs." " Didn't see that one coming." " Let's go." " Today you tattooed portraits." "Based on your work, one of you will close shop." "Time to hear from the jury of peers." "Now, I understand that you did not reach a decision." "Is that accurate?" " It was a hard split." "There was no moving anybody." "But me, Nikki, Ryan voted for Kevin." "And Nate, Gian, and Kevin voted for Nikki." " Anyone with eyes, I feel like, would say that mine looks more like the picture than Nikki's does." " His is gonna have no nose within a couple months." " Kevin, what I'm missing in your face is your liner so that it won't disappear, because your tones are very close to your canvas." " These light colors, these things are gonna fade faster than all the rest." " Had I known that everybody in the room was doing black and gray," "I would have jumped in that pool too and would have did black and gray." " But you were confident in the color." "I walked in, and you had 50 colors poured out, and you were like, "I feel good doing color."" "So I can't get in your ear." "I've been in your ear from day one, but I can't get you to change your ways." "You do what you do always." " But accuracy being the word of the day," "Nikki's tattoo might be the most inaccurate tattoo, because it looks the least like the kid." " If I wanted to do it as accurate to that photo as possible, that would have been a weak tattoo that would not hold up over time." " You can look at my tattoo and say," ""Okay, that's that boy."" "When you look at yours, it looks more like a demon child." "I don't know, like..." " As a tattooer, there's certain things you need to do to make sure it stands as a tattoo." " There should be a level that you should stop at, because my thing is you went too far to the point where it doesn't look like that child anymore." " We'll see when that thing heals." " Yeah, whatever." " Yours isn't gonna look like your child in a couple months." "It's gonna be deformed, not only..." " He's gonna have that job on that lip gloss." "It's still gonna look like a good tattoo of a 40-year-old man." " You know your tatt..." "okay, really?" " Whatever." " Calm down." " No, you calm down." "Are you kidding me?" " So it's safe to say that both tattoos are lacking in accuracy, as is Ryan's." "The right eye is a different shape." "There's eyelashes on her left eye that aren't in the photo." "And Ryan put a hell of a dimple in the cheek." " My canvas specifically requested those things from me." "I feel like there's issues in Kevin's that were not addressed." " For example?" " The lip is a weird shape." "The nose is too angular for that little boy." "He completely missed the shadow above the eyebrow." " Well, my thing is you changed your eyes." " The hair is two different..." "excuse me." "The hair is two different colors." "Those are all important things." " Well, my thing is it still looks more like the boy in the face than yours does." " All right, guys, time to decide who's going home." " For me, the battle for who's going home is between Nikki and Kevin." "Just because Kevin's looks more like the photo doesn't, to me, necessarily mean that it's more accurate, because there's a lot of areas of Kevin's that are un-accurate." "If you're looking at which one's the better tattoo, you're gonna go with Nikki." "To go home, my vote is for Kevin." " If you guys both worked in my tattoo shop and did these," "I would be more happy with the one that Nikki did, based on knowing that it's gonna look better over time." "I'd have to say Kevin." " I do not know what things are going to turn into." "I think Kevin's looks more like the child than Nikki's does, so I vote for Nikki to go home." " For longevity and bones, and what the tattoo has got to be, Kevin." " The judges have decided." "Kevin, you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master." " It's been fun to watch you." "It's a battle, but honestly, Kevin, if you take a little direction from people that you do love their work and people that you want to be around, then you're gonna switch in two seconds." " Please pack your machines and close shop." "♪" "I feel a little cheated, just because I know that I did a better tattoo when it comes down to it looking like who it's supposed to look like." "My tattoo, ten years from now, may be different, but Nikki's is always gonna be that unknown child." "announcer:" "On the next episode of "Ink Master."" " Win as a team, or you lose as a team." "This is the worst day for me as a coach, and the toughest day for me as a judge." "Nate has to pull his [bleep] together, or Gian and I are going down with him." " One little flaw could be the difference." "I feel like I'm waiting for my execution right now." " Too dark." " Think about what we're here fighting for." "I'm worried about those girls trying to run stuff around here." "Nate's still here?" "That mother [bleep]?" "I hope to hell she has a meltdown." " If there's anybody who deserves to go home today, it's you." " That's where you're wrong."