"Male announcer:" "This season on "Ink Master,"" "It's Peck versus Nuñez." "[dramatic music]" "On the last episode..." " What's more powerful and strong wherever than like, metal [bleep] chains?" "Boys, this is what we're doing." "announcer:" "Having to work with their teammates caused even deeper rifts in the flash challenge." " I say we make him look more angry." " You might be better suited to making that character." " Last week I got my ass ripped." "That can't happen again." "Why did we go so hard with the freaking colors?" " Ours is way cooler." " Yeah, but it's not gonna get done." " It won't get done?" "Get your act together." " The winners of today's flash challenge are Team Peck." " Whoo." "Yeah." " Who is the easiest person on Nuñez to get out?" "Sketchy." " Sketchy?" "Come on." " See, now you're just riding with the girls." " I want to [bleep] shoot at the best artist." "Doesn't matter who's got a penis or a vagina today." "♪ announcer:" "In the elimination tattoo, alliances were put to the test as the sexes failed to protect their own." " SketchyLawyer." " [bleep]." " Nikki." " Little [bleep]." " That little bug Gian's going down for this [bleep]." "He was trying to keep it real the whole time, and then he comes with some [bleep] bullshit." " I can't believe this is happening." "Doing a [bleep] new-school tattoo on a guy's ass." "[coughs]" "And on top of it, I'm sick as [bleep]." "[blows nose]" " We can't be aiming for each other right now, man." "Don't tell me that we're gonna go for the girls, and then you shoot at me, mother[bleep]." " I got to." " Oh, that's [bleep] up." "I'm over the [bleep] head games, man, I'm over living in this [bleep] house full of people that want to argue about dumb [bleep]." "♪ [dramatic music] announcer:" "In the elimination," "Kevin, Kelly, and Eric were the bottom three." " Kevin." " Your glass doesn't look like glass." "There is not one crisp detail throughout this tattoo." " Kelly." " It has an unfinished feel to it." " I know that I fell short, but I gave you a good [bleep] tattoo." " Eric." " This thing is jacked." "The drawing, the layout, the placement, the shape, the composition." " It just doesn't look like you." " It's not." "When you feel like [bleep], there's no days off here." " Judges have decided." "Eric, you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master." "♪ announcer:" "Eight artists remain, but only one will earn a $100,000 prize and the title of Ink Master." "[rock music]" "♪" "[hard rock music]" "♪ [dramatic music]" " Don't let them words get you down, bro." " They didn't get me down." "I just thought it was [bleep] up." " Eric is a better tattooer than you." " But wait, today..." " Can't be heard, it's a fact." "He..." " But who... whose fact?" "'Cause it's not mine." " It's a fact when it comes to this competition." "He can finish everything, he can outline, he can shade." " Well, if that was a fact, then he wouldn't have done a worse tattoo than me today." " Eric has been doing better than you in this competition." " Don't try to say he's a better tattooer than me." "That's not the case." " I meant in the damn competition." " In the competition, in life." "The times I've been at the bottom, it hasn't been because I [bleep] the bed." "Nobody's ever voted my tattoo as the worst of the day, never." " I would have [bleep] freaked the [bleep] out if they sent me dow..." "just for sending me down there." " It's the name of the game." " I went down there last time and damn-near [bleep] went home." "You think it didn't [bleep] with my head?" " Obviously." " This is it, and it's only gonna get significantly harder from here." "♪ [rock music]" "♪" " Welcome." "Only eight of you remain, and once again the teams are even, four on Team Peck and four on Team Nuñez." "This week we are testing technical application." " Technical application is what's happening when you put the needle to the skin." "Is your line work clean?" "Is your shading smooth?" " For this flash challenge you must tattoo one of the most delicate and sensitive areas of the human body... [dramatic music]" "The palm of the hand." " Oh." " Ooh." " There are more sensory neurons on the palms than any other part of the body and a larger brain area devoted to receiving their signals." "That means your canvas will definitely be in excruciating pain." " Getting your palm tattooed is one of the most complicated, serious areas." "It's extremely painful, and it's not like normal tattooing." " You must have flawless technical application." "Overwork the skin, and you'll damage it permanently." "Underwork it, and your tattoo won't hold." " Anybody have their palms tattooed?" " Anybody have done it before?" " There is a right way to tattoo a palm and a definite [bleep] load of wrong ways." " I don't know the technique." "I don't even know where to start." " Let's meet your canvases." "[dramatic music]" "♪" "Canvases, please tell us what you'd like tattooed in your palm." " Traditional black and gray eyeball with a teardrop." " Colored traditional sacred heart." " Not going to happen." "Color tattoos are impossible on the palm." "They're not going to stick." " Color realistic tiger fish." " Colorful realistic betta fighting fish." " Can't really do realism in the hand." "Their expectations are way wrong." " A yeti in color, new-school." " Neo-traditional planet Earth." " 3D crystal ball." " Hell, no." "Everybody's gonna have to do some finessing today to get their canvases to something more realistic." " Okay, canvases, one-by-one, please draw a skull." "The name on the bottom of your skull will determine your artist." "Go ahead." " Nikki." " Ryan." " SketchyLawyer." " A lionfish, realistic, on the palm of her hand in color?" "Completely undoable." " Gian." " Nate." " Boneface." " Kevin." " Kelly." " As you know, the winner of this flash challenge will have the power to assign all human canvases in the elimination tattoo." "You have three hours to tattoo your canvas's palm, and your time starts now." " I'm Ryan." "Nice to meet you." " Double trouble right here, huh?" " That's right." " Palm tattoos are incredibly difficult because the skin type is completely different." " Only thing that stays on the palm is black." " It's always being used." "The skin's always peeling, always changing." " Color with this thing is impossible." "I'ma put you through so much pain for nothing." " Palm tattoos are all about specialized technical application, and it's something that has to be deep." " Anything around here where the calluses start to begin, it will fall out." " Today Oliver and I are not gonna help whatsoever." "This is something that either, as a tattooer, you know how to do or you don't, and we're not here to teach tattooing." "We're here to critique it." " Here's the thing with the hands." "You got to make it a little bit simple." " No, it's got to stay close to the realistic." " There's no way she's not gonna do colors today." "I'm just gonna have to do it." " It says something when you have eight tattooers in a room and not a single one has their palms tattooed." " Think about it." " Ah." " How bad could a palm actually be, you know?" " Pretty bad. [laughs] [dramatic music]" "♪" " So Kelly, when you did your palm tattoo, do you go in just kind of like..." " It's pretty similar to, like, lining, making my lines with stippling." " You're a badass." " I'm more than happy to help Nikki and Ryan." "We just need one of the girls to get the skull pick." " Hey, Kelly where do you think I should stipple?" "Just, like, a little under here?" " Yeah, that way it's, like..." " Got it." " Depth." " Okay, I can do this." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " I am really proud of my ladies right now." "Our canvases are all compromising on the realistic design." "We are about to make these boys look like fools." "♪" " Five, four, three, two, one." "That's it." "Machines down." "Time is up, no more ink." " Whew." "Oh, my God, that is gorgeous." " Little moment of pain for a lifetime of pretty." " Sketchy gave her something that looks like she put her hand in an ink spill or something." "What even is that?" " Are you happy?" " I'm happy." " Okay, good." " All right, artists, it is time to critique your work." "Boneface." " It's a smooth tattoo." "If it was on a regular part of the body, that nice, smooth, gray shading was a beautiful effect, but you can see..." "the texture of the skin that has the fingerprint texture, you can see that shading is just sitting on top of that." "That's the skin that dies in a tattoo process, so when that skin dies and leaves, the tattoo's leaving with it, so for that point, your technical application on a regular part of the body" "is fine, but in this challenge it didn't hold up." " Kevin." " Be questionable how it will peel." "Typically, you're not creating enough depth when you just come with one pass no matter how slow or how deep, so typically, it tends not to hold." " You see, when you try to outline on that skin, it's not like normal skin." "When you run the needle across it, it just doesn't come out looking crisp, and it's gonna heal even worse." "♪" " The judges are showing no mercy." "I'm consumed by fear right now." " Kelly." " I really like the design." "Very simple." "I like the approach." "This is the way to do it." "When it heals, it will still look like the world." " Obviously, the moral of the day is that detail isn't gonna hold." "Color's not gonna hold, so you can pretty much omit all that and just get in and get out." " Thank you." " Gian." " What we're looking at right now is a beautiful tattoo, but I don't know what percentage is gonna be there when it heals." "Gonna be a very low percentage, so low that people are not gonna be able to recognize what it is." " Nate." " I've done a few palm tattoos." "I know color's a bad decision to make, but..." " But you put color in it." " I couldn't talk him out of it." " The fact of the matter is, is that tattoo doesn't look great now, and it's not gonna look good later." " Ryan." " I know that to get a palm tattoo to stay it has to be as simple as it possibly can be." " I really like the design." "I really like the simplicity of it, and I like the way it fits the hand, but the majority of your dots, you can see that they're just not deep enough." " Chances are it's gonna be the disappearing tattoo." "♪" " Nikki." " The approach you used on this tattoo is definitely the right technical application." "The ones that stay are the ones that are done like this." "Very legible, clean design." " The placement, I do wish that you came down a little lower and made the flame a little more pronounced, but the execution was very clean." "The route that you chose is the only route that will stay." " Sketchy." " I think it should stay pretty good." " It's not." "It's a huge black splotch." "Those lines, that's just a bunch of pain for nothing." " It's hard to see what's going on." "Looking up at it close, the detail is very scratchy." " If I did the tattoo that big, it would have been hard to read." " It's just a mess, man." " I know that I'm a great tattooer." "Getting put on blast, I'm not used to that, and I don't [bleep] like it." "I mean, Jesus." " All right, guys, today we're testing technical application with palm tattoos." " The top three for me is obviously the girls." " Nikki did one of the best." " Nikki understood what they're supposed to look like." "Her technical application was spot on, and her technique was right." " And if Kelly would have went the same approach with the line weight that Nikki had and the bigger dots, I think it would have been a bigger punch." "As far as design goes," "Ryan's is one of my favorite of the day." "At least Ryan, Nikki, and Kelly all took the right approach." " Let's let 'em know." " Cool." "♪" " All right, guys." "Today you had to show flawless technical application by tattooing your canvas's palm." "Judges have decided." "The winner of today's flash challenge... is Nikki." " Your tattoo did have the best attributes." "Your design, very legible, very clear." "Few people took the right approach." "Ryan, Kelly, and Nikki..." " Those were the only three tattoos in the room that were actually doable." " Mine did want a full-color planet Earth." " Well, I mean... yeah, but a circle looking like Earth is definitely..." " I changed his mind into something that would work." " Yeah, my guy wanted realism." " Sometimes you get a good canvas." "Sometimes you don't." " Congratulations." "You're gonna have the power to assign all the human canvases for the elimination tattoo." " I'm glad Nikki won because Nikki's not afraid to play a little bit dirtier than Kelly and I." "I'm comfortable in knowing that the fate of the skull pick lies in the hands of one of my allies." " Head back to the loft." "[dramatic music]" " I'm gonna dish that [bleep] to those boys." " Vengeance will be had." " They're gonna get the [bleep] out of this house." " I've had enough of this bull[bleep]." " What happened?" " I'm going out like a G." "♪ [rock music]" "♪" " No matter what the excuse is, it is obvious that a lot of these boys have absolutely no idea what direction to even take in the palm tattoo." " I could hear each and every one of their butts clench when they said that the only artists who did well today were Ryan, Kelly, and Nikki." " Whoo!" "They didn't like that [bleep]." "What I love right now is that I had one of the worst skull picks last week, and I'm gonna dish that [bleep] to those boys." " Vengeance will be had." " The first person I'm going to is Sketchy, and then the next person is [bleep] Boneface, and they're gonna get the [bleep] out of this house." " It's gonna be thrilling watching you do the skull pick." "Girl, [bleep]'s gonna get messy." "[rock music]" "♪ [dramatic music]" "♪" " Welcome to the elimination tattoo." "Chris and Oliver are each counting on you, their remaining team members, to get them a win." "Do that, and you'll earn $100,000, a feature in "Inked" magazine, and the title of Ink Master." "Also on the line, a guest spot at Chris's shop," "Hand Crafted in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or Oliver's shop," "Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas, Texas." "Today we have a very special guest judge." "Tattooing for 24 years, he spec..." " Hold on one second." "I'm done with this [bleep] game." "I'm walking the [bleep] up out of here, and I've had enough of this bull[bleep]." "[dramatic music]" " What happened?" " I'm [bleep] over being here." "I'm over dealing with the mixed personalities." "I know what I can do, and I know that I can [bleep] do great tattoos, and I don't want to be here no more." " Dude, you have a shot." " Hey, man, I took my shot." "I'm over being shot at." "I'm going out like a [bleep] G." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " Wow. [bleep] crazy." "♪" " Chris." " Let's go." " That was [bleep] heavy, man." " I mean, correct, he had enough." " Sketchy?" " Nobody had a clue about this?" " Nobody." " No." " Not even a little bit." " No." " Bro, what's up?" " I been fighting this [bleep] for weeks, dude." " Sketch, you got a chance to [bleep] do it, man." " [scoffs] Bull[bleep]." " No, you can do it." "I'm telling you." " I'm telling you I can't do it." "Living with these crazy mother[bleep]," "I haven't talked to my daughter in a week, and bro, [bleep] that [bleep]." " This is a tipping point, man." "Everybody who played cracks about this point." " I ain't cracked." "That's... that... that's what I'm saying." "It's trying to get me to the point where I am gonna crack, and you know what?" "I'm not getting to that [bleep] point." " So you sure?" " Bro." " We just want to make sure you're sure." "We're not trying to talk you out of anything." " Bro, I'm [bleep] positive." "♪" " All of the best, man, but I'm telling you, 100 grand could be yours." "It's yours for the taking." "♪" "That sucks." " It's not for everybody, man." " Nah." " I couldn't even imagine that happening." " So close to the end though." " He's done." "Chris and I went and talked to him, and he's done." " Said it's just not for him anymore." " He's out." " I'm a little annoyed, honestly." "Eric went home wanting to be here." " Yeah." " And he just walked out." " Everybody who went home before you guys wanted to stay here, everybody." " So..." " No one wants to leave." " Somebody's gonna win." "It's not gonna be Sketchy." " I'd like to move on and get to you guys, 'cause you still have a hell of a day ahead of you." "All right, as I was saying, today we have a very special guest judge." "Tattooing for 24 years, Robert Atkinson." "[dramatic rock music]" "♪" " I'm known for making tattoos that are really large-scale." "The flow and the way things fit the body is super-duper important." " How are you, man?" " Robert Atkinson is an absolute legend." "I'm kind of on the edge of my seat right now." " Robert, what are you looking for today?" " I'm looking for clarity in design." "I think it's important that you stay in the driver's seat also so that you're in charge of the design." " This is the day to be a salesman for sure." " Most people wear their tattoos with pride, but one in seven have a tattoo they regret." "Today you must cover a tattoo in a spot that is often a source of embarrassment, a tramp stamp." "[dramatic music]" " I knew that damn tramp stamp fad would come back to bite me in the ass." " [laughs]" " Tramp stamps became a fad because their designs were typically small and their placement was easy to hide." "However, the placement of the tramp stamp on the extreme lower back makes it a serious challenge to cover it tastefully." " Tattooing over already-tattooed skin just makes the tattoo process that much more difficult." "If an artist doesn't have good technical application, there's no point in tattooing because you're just gonna put them through unnecessary amounts of pain and see the tattoo underneath anyways." " All right, let's meet your canvases." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " Nikki, you won the flash challenge." "That means that you have the power to assign the canvases." " I don't know who I'm gonna target now." "Now I'm coming for you." " Go ahead." " My strategy with the skull pick is look out for myself and the girls." "As far as everybody else goes, they are not safe." "What are you looking to get today?" " A photo-realistic rose decaying into a skull." " Can I see what you have?" "Awesome." " I would like a nature scene with flowers, butterflies, birds that represent my family." " This tramp stamp is rough." "It's really big." "It's really dark, and it's packed with existing color." "Whoever gets this is totally screwed." " A grim reaper with some negative space in the middle of him, be almost like a stag with the grim reaper going over it." " I don't know what the hell he's talking about." " I'm looking to get a surfer riding a wave with a sunset behind him." "♪" " This old tattoo is so big, and the color is really dark." "That is not gonna be fun to cover up." "I hope I don't get him." " A fallen angel kneeling on a pillar." " Can I see the tattoo?" "Ooh." " It's so big and so dark." " Anything that's big, solid black tribal is gonna be a tough cover-up." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " All right, guys." "One-by-one, please read the artist's name on the bottom of your skull." " Nikki." " Ryan." " Gian." " Oh, man." " I'm interested to see Gian think his way out of this one." "♪" " Kevin." "♪" " I saw that coming." "At any point if Nikki Simpson can get me out of this house, she's gonna try her damnedest to." "I'll deal with it the same way I've dealt with it this entire competition, do the bomb tattoos I do and stick around." " Nate." "♪" " Boneface." "♪" " Nikki's strategy is clear." "She's looking out for the girls and trying to destroy all the guys." "This is gonna be a long day." " Kelly." " Today you'll have six hours to cover your canvas's tramp stamp." "Do not think you are safe just because Sketchy is not here." "Based on your work, one of you will go home." "[dramatic music]" "Good luck." " How's it going, man?" " Cover-up is a difficult challenge." "It's all about the application." "If the ink is not applied perfectly, the old tattoo is not gonna disappear." " Let me check that tattoo out real quick." " I have high hopes for all of my team members in this challenge." " I think that would be great." " Team Nuñez has took some pretty big hits." "He loses Eric, his number one." "Now Sketchy quits." "Nuñez is left with three people to my four." "Tables took a turn real quick." " You said you wanted to go with a surfer, right?" " Yeah, a California sunset with a wave and a surfer, you know, with the hang ten." " Okay." " Water is something that I don't tattoo well." "So are you cool with black and gray or color?" " I would prefer color." " On top of that, the old tattoo is extremely big, extremely black, and gonna be hard to cover." "The biggest thing is that doing all of that," "I don't know if we'd be able to squeeze color into it." " My main thing was the sunset." " The sunset, right." " You know, that's why I wanted it color." " Last week I barely made it by." "This week, if I can't get my canvas to compromise," "I could go home." "If we do the shark, it'll be just the shark." " I want the surfer." "[dramatic music] [dramatic music]" "♪" " I gave Nate the stinker, the one that's this [bleep] big." " I didn't understand the grim reaper." " I don't remember who I even gave that to." "Kevin?" "[laughs]" "These guys should be worried." "They're kind of screwed." "There is no stopping this girls alliance." "It was like, "Well, Sketchy's out."" " Someone has to incur the wrath." " [laughs]" " Okay, guys, you have six hours to help your canvases by covering a tattoo that they regret, and your time starts... now." " All right." " Hey, yo." "[dramatic music]" " Cover-ups are a great test of technical application because you're basically playing a trick on the eye, and you're camouflaging an area, and you have to disperse the dark as evenly as you disperse the light" "so that the cover-up's not obvious." "♪" "I'm pretty bummed on the whole Sketchy thing." "This is definitely a big shake-up on my side of the fence for sure." "♪" "Today I need my team to do well." "I can't lose another artist." "I want to win this goddamn thing." "♪" " Nikki has given me the guy who wants the surfer." " He looks so, like, serious." "[laughs]" " But the biggest issue is my design." "I can't get this water right, and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm gonna hide this old tattoo completely." "And what I'm gonna do with this, I'm gonna make, like, a design under the board too, so that way I don't have to try to do too much." "The guys, we're already screwed." "The girls keep gaining momentum, and it's gonna be hard to stop them at this point." " All right, guys, five hours remaining." "♪" " Oh, your skin takes ink like butter." " Oh, good." " I came into this competition needing to prove exactly who I am, and with every single day that I'm here," "I get more and more comfortable in my own skin." "♪" "Are you coming to [bleep] Fort Lauderdale," "Hand Crafted, or what?" " I hope so." " Oh!" " [bleep], dude." " Now's my time to shine and prove that I can win time and time again." "♪" " My canvas wanted a bunch of different elements, but after talking and consulting," "I'm gonna do two realistic three-dimensional roses and anice, little skull." " Ooh, trying to one-up me with some roses, huh?" " You're doing roses?" " Yeah." "Damn it." " As a realism artist, I'm excited about this." "If I were at home, this would be right up my alley." " Two more hours, guys." "♪" " The tattoo is big and really dark." "There's no way I can win tattoo of the day with this cover-up." " How are you guys doing?" " Uh, we're getting there." " What was under there?" " Big piece of tribal." " Oh, I see." " My biggest concern right now with this tattoo is to not make it so dark that it looks like another huge piece of tribal." "♪" " Done with these flowers." "Going for the other side now." " What color are you doing them?" " I'm going for red 'cause that way" "I can do the butterfly blue and that blue little one that you got here to match with the other one." " Oh, okay." " And then you got, like, hot and cold." "This canvas is awesome." "She's letting me do my thing and just reworking this tattoo and adding to it." "Looks beautiful, I got to say." "Nikki's thinking that I'm gonna drop the ball with this tattoo." "Her strategy's definitely not gonna work today." " This is lovely." "Gian's not even really doing a cover-up." "He's just reworking what was already there." "It definitely doesn't meet the challenge of a cover-up." " Final hour remaining, final hour." "♪" " This season the girls are kicking ass." " That's great." " Stick together like girl power." "Nikki and Kelly are [bleep] crushing it." "I can't wait to see how bad the guys are [bleep] up." " I really like Ryan and Nikki's." " I like Nikki's the best." "I think hers was much harder to do than Ryan's." " With less than an hour to go, I don't know what Boneface is gonna do to save that wave." " All his focus was on the surfer, and he basically, like, saved the cover-up for the end." "Gian, his looks great." " He's just a slick technician, man." " Yeah." "He didn't have to cover though." "It was more of a fix-up add-on, but I'm pretty impressed." " Yeah, well, now that we're down to the back end of this thing, I mean, there's only four more people that can leave now." "Three of these people are going off to the big show." "You know, the finale will be three." "♪" " Five, four, three, two, one." "That's it." "Time's up." "Machines down, no more ink." " Wow." "Holy cra..." "I wasn't expecting that at all." " Boneface's tattoo looks like crap." "How could he stay here after this?" "If I thought you were a [bleep] artist, why would I give you the hardest skull?" " I don't give a damn if you go for me or not." " It looks very stagnant and stiff." "You were heavily challenged." " Not a good plan from the start." "You failed in this." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " That just was a [bleep] hole." " I got probably the worst canvas." " I think it's gonna be me, Nate, and Kevin." "Worst tattoo of the day goes home, and I'm stressed, but you can find reasons to keep going, or you can find reasons to quit." "[dramatic music]" " Yeah, I think all the boys are like, "[bleep]."" " [laughs]" " Yeah, the whole girl alliance thing is really starting to sting." " Who you were aiming for really worked." " [bleep] yeah, it worked." " Boneface, it's just a mess." " The only way he's going to be safe is if the judges are sick of Kevin disregarding what they're telling him." " Boneface has had nine lives." " That [bleep] drives me crazy." "[dramatic music]" "♪" " Today you had to show bulletproof technical application by covering a tramp stamp." "Nikki, let's start with you." "[dramatic music]" " In the sense of a cover-up, you nail it." "You hit technical application here really well." "You applied the ink to the skin in a way that gets rid of the underlying tattoo." "That real deep, rich black that you get down there puts so much depth into the tattoo, and when you have those leaves, you can balance the black everywhere." "Then it always camouflages nicely, and somebody can't go, "Oh, there's the cover-up."" " It's very beautiful, and technically it is pretty perfect." " There's no trace of the existing tattoo, and that was a massive tattoo that you covered up." "Great job." " Thanks." "♪" " Ryan." "♪" " Beautiful design, beautiful tattoo." "I love to see this really classic, iconic imagery." " I would have definitely done the flames in color." "I feel like the shadows with the darkness at the top of the flames, it's a little less clear than it could have been." " In these roses, the areas where the old tattoo's showing, that discoloration in that bottom rose could totally be played off as a shadow." "I wish you would have mimicked that texture throughout the bottom of all the flowers, and it would have totally erased any idea that there's a cover-up going on here." "♪" " Kelly." "♪" "This does not look like a cover-up on any level." "This is my favorite tattoo from you so far." " The color palette is very nice." "It's laid out very well, but where you really excel on this tattoo is your technical application." "Not very many people could create these shadows that well, pull off these tones that well." "I think it's perfect." "Your technical application is flawless in this." "♪" " Gian." "♪" "Instead of covering up, you did a reworking." " Just tried to fix it and make a pretty tattoo, tried to make the best of what I had." " Is it fair that everybody else covered up an existing tattoo and you reworked one?" " I feel like this was the most responsible choice to make, and it would have been a really, really hard one to cover." " This is 100% the right move to give this canvas the best tattoo." "He covered up every bad design and line of this tattoo with a new, beautiful line and design of the tattoo, and the quality and the technical application of which he applied this whole tattoo is amazing." "♪" " Nate." "♪" " Nate, I definitely think you got a tough one, man." "This was a legit cover-up." "You do have a lot of dark in here, making this tattoo really tonal, but because this was the cover-up and you used that little glow behind the head and then the dark behind that, it does all kind of balance." "One thing that does bother me is that right wing, you didn't lift your design high enough so that the piece of the old tattoo wasn't poking out of your outline." " Tried to keep it real symmetrical, and I was afraid to throw it off." " No doubt there's many areas throughout this tattoo where you see the old tattoo, but I think you laid out a cool design." "It's definitely masculine, very solidapplication." "♪" " Boneface." "♪" " You're consistent with application." "It's just here you're really challenged artistically." "First thing is the fluidity of the water." "It's very stagnant and stiff." "It should flow." " The water that's flying, to me they look a bit like teeth." "The hands are really funny to me." "Then this board that doesn't really look like a surfboard." " It looks like an ironing board to me." "Your problems are not in your technical application." "Your problem in this is your planning and your execution of how to get this design to fit into the new design that you have." "♪" " Kevin." "♪" " At first glance the tattoo's nice, but why, again, no outlines today?" " I'm a realism artist." "To put lines in something realistic doesn't make sense to me." " I never do a tattoo without an outline." "It looks great in the photo now, but in one or two years, all those reds are gonna bleed together, and all that detail is gonna go away." " If you guys say that taking a realism approach isn't the proper thing to do here, then..." " No, we can take the realism approach, but you have to apply the technical side of tattooing that does work." "You put a small black outline on this, and it holds it together." " If you're not willing to do those outlines, we're gonna have a rough time, 'cause a outline in here is always gonna win." "♪" " All right, judges, time to determine who had the best tattoo of the day." " As far as technical application goes," "Gian is far and above the cleanest tattoo of the day." " You think his technical application is better than Kelly's?" " Right." " I think it's on par." " Kelly's tricks outweigh Gian's." " So you're saying best tattoo of the day goes to Gian?" " This is the best tattoo." " Wow." "However..." " Let's take the other things into consideration." " The other thing is covering up." " Yes." " I think he hit the challenge." " For a winner I'm leaning more towards a cover-up." " Let's look at Nikki's tattoo and look at what she covered, 'cause that's a full-on cover-up." " It is." " And that's a full-on beautiful tattoo." " It is." " Robert, which way you leaning?" " I'm leaning on Nikki." " The tattoo of the day is strong technical application and beauty and fit, and everything encompassing, whether it's cover-up or not, is Gian." " Wow." " My vote is for Kelly." "I believe you hit the challenge." "I believe your artistry's on point." "Looks pretty technically sound to me." "Chris?" " I'm with Nikki." "It was a large cover-up, and she laid it out perfectly and executed it like a champ." " The judges have decided the best tattoo of the day goes to Nikki." " Sweet." "Thank you." " Okay, as the jury of peers, all of you must deliberate to put one artist up for elimination." "One of you is about to pack your machines." "Head back to the loft." "[dramatic music]" " Kevin, just put the [bleep] outline in." " I'm gonna do what the [bleep] I want to do." " I did not expect this to be the last three on team Nuñez at all." " You don't feel like I'm good enough to stay here?" " What is your deal with me right now?" " Give me the bad skull pick." "It was like you were being condescending, like, "Oh, I'm giving this to you"" "because I feel like you're such a great artist,"" "when 24 hours ago I just said that you were a [bleep] artist and I don't think you should stay here." " I didn't say that, Kevin." " That's exactly what you said, and I feel like that was hella fake." " If I thought you were a [bleep] artist, why would I give you the hardest skull?" " I don't give a damn if you go for me or not, but don't come for me and then try to frame it as a compliment." "♪ [rock music]" "♪" " We're here as a jury of peers to determine who had the worst tattoo of the day." " I think Boneface had the worst tattoo." " The main problem with the tattoo as a cover-up challenge is you still see the original design." " His hands are a little [bleep] up." "This thing had a lot of design flaws in general." " It was too [bleep] big, and when I got it," "I already knew I was kind of screwed." " Got to say, Kevin, even if we don't vote for you, man, probably going down there, bro." " You already know what they gonna hit on on this one." "There's no line work." " In this competition, just don't do realism at all because..." " You can do outlines on realistic tattoos." "Like, Nikki's is still within the realm of realism." " I did those roses the way that I did because I know what they're looking for." "That's..." " No, and that was a very intelligent choice." "I have never done a rose like you did today, and so for me, I don't want to throw lines in there just for the sake of throwing lines and not know how to properly do it," "so do I go into it blindly and potentially [bleep] a tattoo up, or do I just do what I know, you know what I mean?" " Depends on the judges in this one." "They could say, "You didn't do outlines." "You're done."" "♪" " Today we're testing technical application covering up tramp stamps." "Overall, what are your thoughts?" " They all did pretty good today." "Couple of people got rough ones." " Nate, probably the hardest." " But Nate did camouflage and make this thing go away, whether you see it peek or you don't." " Yeah, he definitely had the hardest one of the day." "I would have been afraid to do that." " Boneface really got screwed." "This tattoo is one of the darkest ones." " That original tattoo is clear as day." " The surfer was done before he even got to the bottom." "He was avoiding the cover-up the whole time." " Robert, what was your thinking in terms of Kevin's cover-up?" " Overall, the tattoo's really good except for the fact that there's no black outline." " His argument about trying to go realism," "I don't think these leaves look realistic." " I think he just wants to do his thing, and, you know, maybe this is just not the place for him to do it." "♪" " Who knows if they're even gonna eliminate somebody today, you know?" "Sketchy left." " I don't think so." " And maybe him sacrificing himself has saved one of us." " It better not." "I want this [bleep] to [bleep] move. [snaps fingers] [dramatic music]" " All right, as the jury of peers, who are y'all sending down for elimination?" " Jury of peers has decided to put up Boneface for elimination." " All right, let's see Boneface," "Kevin, and Nate in the bottom, and we'll see you all downstairs." " [sighs]" " I knew it." " Let's go." "♪" " Today you had to tattoo a cover-up." "Based on your work, one of you will close shop." "All right, time to hear from the jury of peers." "Why did you vote Boneface to the bottom?" " His tattoo is just not good-looking." " It just looked like a cover-up." " That's fair, and I know improvements that I could have made, and I know where I messed up at." "I don't like to make excuses." " Not a good plan from the start on how you were gonna work this either into the new image or covering it." "You did a partial redo and a partial cover-up." "Both failed in this." " Nate, you were heavily challenged with this canvas." " Being that it all ended up as tonal as it did was really the downfall to this." " I get it." "This thing was so stressful." " I think that you had the most challenging of all the tattoos to do." "I just feel like the other ones shined a little bit more." " Let's move along to Kevin." " I like the tattoo overall." "Again, I think an outline is gonna make things a little bit better." " I consciously went in it knowing" "I wasn't gonna put outlines in it." " It's crazy to me, man." "If I was in a competition where the people judging me were telling me advice," "I'd listen to 'em." " I knew the consequences of that." "That's how I wanted that tattoo to come out, so that's what I did." "♪" " Time to decide who's going home." " Nate, strictly based on technical application and achieving a cover-up, safe." " Agree with that, Robert?" " Safe, yeah." " Okay, so that leaves Kevin and Boneface." "It's a pretty huge decision." " For me, I feel like Kevin is just doing the same thing." "On the day where it's technical application, he had the opportunity to do something stronger, and he admittedly makes the statement that he knew he was doing something that's gonna put him in the bottom, which is weird, and then Boneface," "a less appealing tattoo by far and a less cover-up, paid attention to technical application day, but we have a unanimous jury of peers..." " Yup." " And if it's worst tattoo of the day..." "I got to go with Boneface." "♪" " Robert?" " Boneface." " Boneface." " My vote is also for Boneface." "♪" "The judges have decided." "Boneface, you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master." " We saw you do a lot of clean tattoos." "Your technical application is strong, and a lot of people didn't think you were gonna be here week two, but you came back as an underdog, and you really showed people you were way more than what they thought, so good job." " Please pack your machines and close shop." "♪" " The women's alliance is stronger than ever right now." "Nikki was aiming for me, and it came out how it came out, and I'm going home for it." "♪ [dramatic music] announcer:" "On the next episode of "Ink Master."" " The competition's not getting any easier." " Half of us are going for elimination next time." " 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." " You have never been in the bottom." " I changed the way that I play this game." " It's like playing Russian roulette." " I like competition, and the bigger the better." " I feel like it's time for a female Ink Master." " My strongest competition are also my closest allies." " When they [bleep] with me..." " [laughs]" " I'm going to stand up for myself." "♪ [rock music]" "♪" " ♪ Original"