- Thursday, January 26, 2012

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INK MASTER Update: Shit just got real(ity tv-ish really quick)

I commented about watching the first episode of Spike TV’s new Ink Master reality show. And today I watched the second.

What immediately brought me into possibly getting into this series were the “skill challenges” thrown at the contestants, and in this episode they had to do pinwork on a car. Each contestant randomly pulled from a bag a set of keys corresponding to each car, and their goal was to draw something on the bodywork to bring out the shape and flow, etc. I was really looking forward to this, but it all went by and downhill pretty fast.

The first thing that went wrong was the intro to the show itself. Dave Navarro says something to the effect of: “10 of the world’s best tattoo artists compete to win the title of Ink Master…” These people are not the best tattoo artists in the world. If they were, they wouldn’t be trying to win $100,000 and a made-up tv title. These people are the only ones the producers could find.

The next problem, again, were the contestants. There’s nothing I hate more than people who chose to do this type of thing - only to constantly complain about being there and having to do anything. That’s why I never watch Big Brother, or any similar kind of “reality show”. Contestant Heather Sinn kept wiping off the paint and re-doing…. something, and they only had 90 minutes to finish their car. When the judges critiqued her for not doing anything, she attacked them back feeling like she had to “defend herself”, when in fact she didn’t even do much of anything (attempt/art-wise) Then because she felt “attacked” she broke down and cried for a lil bit afterwards.

The “elimination challenge” which governs which contestant gets thrown off at the end of each episode involves actual people brought in to get actual tattoos. They are truly the unsung heroes of this entire show. Last week, the people brought in all wanted a cover-up tattoo, and one woman couldn’t take the pain and just bailed. This left the judges in the awkward position of possibly putting through a contestant with un-finished work, and they did, which in turn started this whole “moral rivalry” scenario between all the remaining contestants.

This week, a brand new group of random people were brought in for the contestants with the theme of tribal tattoos. Contestant Bili Vegas, having won the car challenge earlier, was able to hand-pick his client from the group, and chose someone who wanted a complete head tattoo. It was a risky move, because it is a big piece on a tricky area and they only have 5 hours to finish it. Couple hours in - the client started to almost pass out, and an EMT was brought in to check his vitals. His blood pressure was getting too low, so they pulled him, leaving Bili (and the judges again) with an unfinished tattoo.

The promo for the next episode looks like its all kicking off between the contestants. Typical “reality tv show” drama…