Anyone watching this show?
If there is already a thread, I apologize. The search function would not work for me and turned up nothing…
A quick eye scan turned up nada, so I thought I’d start a thread just in case.
Yeah me and my lady have made this one of our favorites… what’s funny is prior to this show I had no interest in tattoos and really actually dislike them… part of it is I’m a dark skinned guy and I think they look terrible on dark skin… (ie Shaq… Lebron… etc)
Big fan of Sausage… and the fight with Kyle and Chris the judge was something else… I’ve grown to really admire the skill… the insight and creativity… I think Navarro does a good job as host…
I watch it intermittently because I am impressed with the art of the better pieces.
But I must say that like virtually every other “reality” show the scripted drama and histrionics seem to get amped up every season. To the point where it is kind of an increasingly annoying guilty pleasure. Heck I find even Antique Roadshow on PBS has been steadily getting more annoying :D.
But yeah, from what I’ve seen so far I’d root for that Sausage character to win, even if quasi-villain Scott might be a slightly more consistent artist.
I’ve been watching since last season, when they brought Tatu Baby back from the previous season. I really like it. I love tattoos and I found this show because I was looking for a tattoo show to watch and the only ones on were shows like Miami Ink which have nothing to do with tattooing (so I don’t watch them). This show is all about the tattoos. It shows everything from actual tattoos right down to the people kicking and screaming.
Anyways, based on Halo leaving last night, which I didn’t see coming, I’m going with Sausage winning (that slippery little sausage). Even though he’s one of my favorite artists on the show, Matty did a shitty job last night and I just assumed that would have sent him packing.
Since no one I know watched the show, I’ll tell you guys, I think a good idea for them to do some day would be ‘virgin canvases’…people that have never been tattooed. [cutaway to someone explaining it to the camera] “with a blank canvas, you have no idea how they’re going to react, they could be just fine, or they could be screaming and squiring around the whole time. This could be horrible. And just because it’s a big strong looking guy, doesn’t mean anything, this is going to be tricky”
Oh, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show with more eye rolling in it. I wonder if the directors tell them to all roll their eyes at the judges when the others are getting their critiques. I’m surprised no one sticks their finger in the mouth and pretends to gag.
By the way, if you want to watch another great show, Tattoo Nightmares is on right after it.
The only one I can root for is Sausage. Matti is just there and Scott is a dick. Granted, I’m sure much of it is production giving Scott the bad guy role, but I don’t like the way he treats skins. TheKid’s first artist was a jerk a la Scott and while the work was fantastic, we will never use him again. The days when a great artist could treat clients poorly is gone - there are too many really good artists vying for money.
One thing I didn’t understand with Halo’s booting - the judges ragged on him for doing flowers for his second tattoo, saying he could have done anything he wanted; however, I swear I heard the skin say she told Halo the flowers she wanted. So, either the client proposed flowers and he went with it, or he said “I want to do flowers again, what do you want?” I don’t care how open a client says s/he is, she had to have given him some direction.
Agreed.
My wife and I have a suspicion that Navarro had some botox or something because he hardly ever moves his eyebrows.
Scott is a dick, but he’s a fantastic artist. Sausage seems like a good guy AND he’s a good artist, so I’m pulling for him.
I think Gentle Jay’s name is a misnomer - he always seemed aggressive and upset.
I’m sure at least some of it is in the editing. But he sure seems like a douche. I’ll always go back to what someone once said on The Real World (paraphrased) “When you have 4000 hours of footage and you only show 22 hours, you can make anyone look however you want”. In this case, for an hour show, they probably have 20 or 30 hours of footage to sift through. But still.
I think she actually came in with her own artwork. Personally, I don’t think she should have been on the episode. It wasn’t a coverup, it was just a ‘tattoo’. But I’m sure they just threw her into the mix knowing exactly what kind of drama it would cause, and they got exactly what they wanted.
Two things I get really tired of are
1)More black (but maybe he’s right, I dunno)
2)You need to tell the canvas what they want/stay in control of them. That response gets old anytime an artist says “But this is exactly what they wanted”. I don’t know if they need to screen them better or what. I get them some of them are just looking for a free tattoo, but I think it needs to be explained to them that if they want to throw a little fit for 5 minutes that’s okay, but ultimately if they don’t reach a decision by a specific time, the artist gets to tattoo whatever design he’s happiest with at that point, and the canvas has to sit for it.
The problem I see with that is if it isn’t going in a way that the artist likes, I could see him antagonizing the canvas to get what he wants.
I’m not sure, but it seems like something needs to be worked out.
TheKid and I have discussed wanting to be a skin on the show. While the thought of getting a great tattoo for free is tempting, neither one of us would want to come home with something Japanese (neither of us like that style) and I would hate some huge grotesque being put on me. I would hope the skins have some input with production beforehand, even if it’s an open skin challenge. And, I do believe they should have replacement skins available. If there is no way for the artist and skin to meet minds, the artist should not be penalized nor should s/he be allowed to steamroll the skin.
Have you seen the scrolls at the bottom? “Every thought about having your face tattooed? Your butt? Your skull?” They’re trying to make it more extreme for no damn reason. Give twelve artists a chunk of back and we know half will fail miserably with a good, clean area.
I would like to see a good script challenge. Not just a name. Script. It’s amazing how many otherwise great artists suck at script.
They do heads and butts only once in a while, but I think, more than anything they do it because they know some of the artists are going to have moral problems with it. IIRC, Sausage had a big problem with the face tattoo this season. Someone gave him that skull, and like always, he talked the canvas into getting the tattoo done elsewhere.
I assume half the reason for the feed is to get more viewers for next year, but a big part of it is because it’s hard to get people who want their’s tattooed. They probably have to find 100-200 people who actually want their face/skull/butt tattooed before they can whittle it down to the 4 or 5 that will actually go in front of the cameras and lights and pull the trigger. They need those people to go to the website.
I’m just glad Dave stopped wedging “Taco Bell” into every sentence. He seems a lot less metal when he does that.
Also, very small but slightly NSFW of Oliver Peck’s tattoos. Did you know he had this many? And did you know he was married to Kat Von D for about 10 minutes?
Sadly, I know way too much about Kat Von D due to TheKid having had a massive girl crush on her. She’s moved on to Megan Massacre, thank heavens. One of her friends has a Megan tattoo and it is just gorgeous.
I do like Oliver Peck, much more than I like Chris Nunez. I feel Oliver is more fair than Chris is - Chris does let his personal feelings get in the way of the work.
Little longer than ten minutes. 2003-2007 per wiki. I’m in the middle of a divorce right now; July would have been 5 years. Sure seems longer than 10 minutes to me.
Granted, that was snarky and tangential. But, to me, 10 minutes is a Kardashian marriage.
I am glad some folks are watching it.
This is the worst season, IMO. The drama has been amped up, and the eye rolling, etc has become over the top. The other thing that drives me crazy is all of the beeped out swear words. If you close your eyes and listen to the show, it sounds like a Springer episode. You can hear only every third word, and nothing makes sense.
Watching it, you can read their lips, so the beeping does nothing to mask the language being used.
As for artists this year,
I can’t stand Scott, like most of you. But I think he has been cast in the villain role and that is his niche for the show.
Sausage drives me crazy with the constant “wooooooooooow”… Or “no waaaaay”. These long, breathy sighs that are just odd. You get at least one per episode, and it is really noticeable when they run shows back to back, like yesterday. He is always SO surprised.
I like his work, though.
Matty to me is the weakest of the finalists. Halo should have been the third guy, and in fact I was surprised that he was the one that was punted.
Scott’s breast piece was terrible. I know that is what the client wanted, but just putting. Bunch if little butterflies did nothing for me, and it looked like anyone could have done that. I was almost hoping Scott would have been sent home because I have frown weary of him, but his body of work is too strong, I guess.
This is another thing about the show. I don’t like. I am not sure how you fix it, though. But when you get toward the end, the shows are no longer judged by themselves. So Scott’s piece last week was awful, but they let him slide to this week because he had a better overall showing than that girl (Melissa?). What is the point of having the tattoos judged if you already know who is going to be on the next show?
How they fix this, though, I don’t know. Because the four guys in last night’s show were the strongest artists from day one, and I could see how you would want to keep Scott around, even though he had a poor outing and should have gone home if it was judged as it is supposed to be judged… these tattoos are being judged against the others done that day only.
Slightly off topic…
Why do some tattoo artists have these strange names?
Sausage is such a stupid name, but he is a good artist. Halo is an odd name, but I like it. Is there a reason for these monikers? Is it just to make the artist stand out more?
I was pulling for Halo, but since he is gone, I don’t know. I think he got screwed las t night, so i don’t have a favorite. Probably, I will root for Sausage, but I really just want to see three great tattoos next week. I love the art, even if I would never get one myself. I am very impressed with folks who can tattoo at this level.
Hmm, I honestly thought it was less than two years. In my head it was like “you like tattoos? Me too!!! lets get married!”
But I had never heard of him before this show.
That’s what I get for not checking first.
Joey P (and any other folks who know about tattoos)
I was surprised at the poor abilities of some of the weaker tattoo artists in this year’s pool.
Was this an opinion you shared, or did you think that everyone was good at some level? I thought that some of the artists were flat out terrible, and. I would think a show like this would screen people a little better before they came on board.
I understand that some people get nervous and can’t handle the pressure, but there were other artists that I wouldn’t want to get tattooed by under any circumstances.
Also, what were your thoughts on Scott copying that warrior? I don’t know the rules on tattooing or copying other works, but I actually agreed with the guy that pointed out that it appeared he cheated by copying another persons art work.
That is the one part of this show that really has bothered me. There is always the possibility that the whole episode was manufactured for the cameras, but assuming it wasn’t, does anyone else think that Scott should have been sent home for using another person’s idea and basically copying their drawing, calling it their own?
That seemed cheesy to me.
My two cents:
I think all of the contestants are better than the majority of tattoo artists with shingles out, but none shine across all genres. That where the problem comes in for me. If I know what style of tattoo I want, I find an artist that specialized in that style. Whatshisface specialized in Hawaiian tribal stuff - of course he was going to suck at realism. Some of it also goes back to ego, too. They’ve been told they’re exceptional and now they’re with a dozen other exceptional artists and faults come through.
Scott and the warrior kerfuffle - in some reality shows production makes it clear that there is to be no tracing/outside material. Here we see them using the internet for ideas every episode. If management said they could use media as a starting ground, but no tracing - then yah, Scott cheated. If not, then he’s fine and Gentle Ben was just a whiner.
Warrior ‘copying’: I defend Scott’s response completely, he was being a good artist by using reference work to establish his composition, and then he tweaked it to his own tastes. I agree with his comment that for an artist to not use references and produce just from their freehand and memory is irresponsible. He didn’t copy anyone’s design, he just used a reference photo as a foundation trace.
It’s when people don’t use reference material that you get the horrible tattoos with bad foreshortening, poor depth, unrealistic anatomy, etc.
My comment for this show specifically, and it seems the industry in general…are all tattoo artists such fragile bullies and spiteful vipers? Why are other artists seen as competitive threats and insults to themselves, and not as colleagues sharing a loved profession?
I have a three tattoos myself. The guy who did the first one (Guy named “Butters” at Jade Dragon in Chicago) was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. He was laughing, cutting up with all of us (I got my first tat at my very first ChiDope), and just seemed like a great guy.
I’ve had one artist that I didn’t like. But that was personal reasons…he’s married to my soon-to-be-ex’s sister, and he’s just a bag of cocks.
I watch the show some, but the judging seems to be completely inconsistent. Certain people get slammed for doing stuff that’s completely ignored when others do it. Whether they’re considering the body of work or the current tattoo and whether they’re looking at the overall aesthetics or the specific element for the week in a tattoo seems to really depend on whether or not they like the artist being judged. They may be getting forced by producers to come up with certain results, though, so maybe it’s not all their fault.
I’ve been watching the show for the past couple of seasons. I keep watching because once every couple of shows someone turns out a really amazing piece of art. And, sometimes, it’s in the flash challenges. One of my favorites this season was Halo and Scott’s gunpowder piece.
I’ve found the judging to be fairly consistent. The main judges (Oliver, Dave and Chris) almost always prioritize the theme of the challenge. It amazes me how often an artist will ignore the theme and then act surprised when they are called on it. The guest judges are harder to predict, especially when they aren’t artists themselves (Hugh Jackman??). I don’t like the addition of the canvas jury. It just seems like filler.
As for this season’s cast, I was pulling for Halo. With him gone, I’ll have to pull for Matti. Sausage is talented, but his incessant whining about being picked on is unforgivable. It’s a competition! Why would any of your competitors make it easy for you? Scott is also talented, but he’s a dick and I don’t think his pieces have as much expression as Matti’s.
This is why I watch it. I don’t have any tattoos and don’t ever plan on getting one, however I am so impressed with some of the artwork some of these folks turn out.
I think the canvas jury is there to identify the worst tattoo from a look POV only. They aren’t focused on whatever the challenge was. Instead, they just vote on which one had the worst tattoo, which is what most folks at home are judging.
It does strike me as filler also, but I understand why they think it adds value. It is interesting to hear when people defend their tattoo, even if it looks terrible.