Ink Master

I have watched every season, and it is down to enjoying the tattoo art process, which is about one third of the show. After the first couple of seasons, it was pretty clear that winning artists are pre-chosen for the final round, and they are going to win no matter how awful their tattoo is on any specific week.

The final episode used to be two hours of these characters just trash talking, and it was impossible to watch. Even at one hour, the final episode every season is the worst one. The giant back tattoos are usually not that good. Whoever made the best full back tattoo never wins. It is by far a rigged competition.

Every season, there are at least two men who are real jerks, and one or two women who are very arrogant and snotty. The rest of the artists in the competition spend their spare time either hating each other, or arguing. The fighting every week makes up about one third of every episode.

The Flash Challenge is some random contest where the competing artists do some totally useless activity, like making houses out of popsicle sticks. This big waste of time takes up the first one third of every episode. Most of the time, if you start watching after 30 minutes, you have not missed much. The best way to watch this show is to view it one week after every episode, and then you can fast forward through all the garbage time, like the flash challenges.

The three judges have very little personality. Dave Navarro used to be a guitarist on Jane's Addiction. He often does not give his opinion at all. He is not a tattoo artist, so the only reason he is on this show is because he is the closest thing to a "celebrity" that they could get. The other two judges are tattoo artists nobody ever heard of, but they claim to be famous.

I've actually never been a tattoo fan but a few months ago, as I was looking for something a little interesting to watch on TV, I came across Ink Master and I've been watching the show from then on.

What I like in this show: some of the tattoos (flowers, realistic photos mostly-- I hate skulls, black and white, pin ups, old and new school tattoos) and the artistic and technical explanations from the contestants. I ONLY watch it because of these two aspects.

What I don't like: the drama scenes, the insults, fights, strategies to win, and Mr Nunez's behavior. Whereas Oliver Peck and Dave Navarro are rather fair judges (although sometimes a little politeness would be most appreciated), Chris Nunez is obviously only here to humiliate the contestants instead of purely sticking to his role as a judge.

As a conclusion: this show could be a really great one if Chris Nunez wasn't there and if the contestants were chosen differently. Some of them don't care a d**n about their 'art', they're just here to fight and make a fuss.

I love reality competition shows. I am also fascinated by the art tattooing, albeit thus far I am an abstainer. The first season was the best--huge egos but genuine talent. (My favorite did not win.) Since then the show has devolved to showcasing some of the nastiest, untalented people on TV. The number of bleeps per episode is irritating; the talent sub par. Is the industry so tapped out that this is the best it has to offer? I also wonder about the psychological stability of the human canvases, many of whom are left with truly ugly, permanent "artwork" on their bodies. In the latest episode, these canvases wanted a anatomically-correct human heart morphing into either a lion, clock or hand grenade. Really? Are they paid to do this or just guaranteed a cover-up on the series Tattoo Nightmares?

The first season, I really liked this show. It was about a tattoo competition. Some of the ink was even good but even when it wasn't it was focused on the art.

Unfortunately, things began to go down hill in the second season. One of the judges, Chris Nunez, became snarkier and snarkier. He seemed to be trying to humiliate and put down the contestants who didn't measure up rather than pull them up to do even better.

Each season, there was a jerk added to the mix. They were someone who would try to "play the game strategically" to get ahead. It became very annoying to watch the petty politics and insults.

The show completely jumped the shark when they announced in the fourth season finale that everyone on the show would have a rival, someone brought in to fight with. Great, pre-made arguing. What a joke! That was the death moment of the show. As soon as they announced that contestants are going to be chosen not on the basis of their art work but on the quality of their enemies I knew the show was dead.

I will continue watching this show no matter what happens just because I love tattoo's and I just love watching creative people. About the show itself it could be much better if there was not that constant feel of everybody acting. You're not actors, you're tattoo artists. Every episode you see them speaking bad of and/or to each other and I can only conclude that they are acting. If anybody would talk to me like that, or being in my face all the time, I would just be in a fight every single episode. So to me it's all acting and I don't get why they chose that concept. The challenges are sometimes pretty stupid as well. I would rather watch them tattoo a lot more, with a lot lesser arguing. Some of the artists are also very arrogant and even if some are good I certainly never would go to any of those arrogant bastards. I have a lot of tattoo's and all of the artists I went to were friendly guys. Anyways, if you like tattoo's then the show is worth a watch. But don't watch it for the judges or the game itself because that's pretty boring. I don't even care who's winning, I just want to see nice tattoo's.