Judges, guest judges, and special appearances
The judging panel consists of three primary judges plus any guest judge for that episode if one is chosen. A guest judge is selected for an appearance and participation in some episodes. He or she collaborates with the judging panel to finalize the voting decision. In past seasons, the guest judge normally specialized in an area which the contestants were to be tested. Sometimes the guest judge was well versed in the skill presented in that episode.
Matti Hixson and Sausage both competed on Ink Master: Revenge (Season 7). Matti Hixson was introduced in Episode 4 and was eliminated in Episode 11 . Sausage was introduced in Episode 3 and was eliminated in Episode 9.
The judges for season four were Chris Núñez, Oliver Peck, and Dave Navarro who also serves as host of the show.
The guest judges this season have been Tommy Montoya (Episode 2), Carlos Torres (Episode 3), C.C. Sabathia (Episode 4), Hugh Jackman (Episode 5), Greg Christian (Episode 6), Freddy Corbin (Episode 7), Rob Zombie (Episode 8), Brandon Rios (Episode 9), Luke Wessman (Episode 10), and Horitaka (Episode 11). Brandon Rios is the only judge to serve on the flash challenge and elimination challenge judging panels.
Joey Hamilton made a guest appearance in the live finale. He applied a tattoo to a client during the live broadcast.
Judging and ranking
The ranking of the artists on Ink Master this season is similar to seasons past. The artist with the best tattoo, as deemed by the judges, wins the challenge. The one that is the worst is sent home. The number of wins combined does not affect ranking, but a win affects the ranking for that episode only. A contestant can be on the verge of elimination the entire season, and still theoretically win the title of Ink Master, so long as they produce at minimum, a better tattoo than another artist up to the final challenge. Minor changes in the judging and associated rules have occurred throughout the seasons in order to attempt to keep the audience's interest. The changes are usually made to try to enhance the anticipation, and to try to keep the viewer's attention longer by adding suspense.
The judging panel is responsible for passing judgement on each artist. They collaborate and use information from their own perception, the audience vote, human canvas vote, and the winner's worst vote to determine who should be sent home. Weight of decisions is set by the terms of the challenge skill.
Audience voting, introduced in season two, is done through Facebook and Twitter using the available tattoo's for vote on the Ink Master website. Voting will directly affect the contestant lineup for the following season; the contestant with the highest vote count will have the opportunity to return.
The canvases for the challenge gather after the tattoos are completed and vote on the best and worst of the days tattoos. While the primary judges have the final say, the weight of the canvas vote does affect the final decision of the judging panel.
The winner of each elimination challenge is asked to pick an artist that he or she believes should be sent home based on their performance in the episode. However, this is not always the case. Some winners have selected persons for elimination who had applied a tattoo that was ranked among the top. The winner may pull his or her personal feelings and interpretations into their vote, as happened is episode three. Winner's Worst voting was introduced in season four.
The show has a basic format that is present in all episodes. Contestants compete on a scale to test each ones skill over the various aspects of the art of tattooing. In competition there are winners and losers. For Ink Master, this presents a challenge, as you can only have one winner in the end, and it can be very difficult to determine a winner when you have multiple people each doing a different tattoo. To determine the winner, the judges must decide who has the best tattoo, but the tattoo must follow the guidelines for the skill being tested. For example, a contestant will lose if they create a wonderful cartoon flower tattoo with smooth shading and solid line work if the skill being tested was creating a human pinup or portrait. To win, a contestant must out-do each of the other artists in the challenge while adhering to the skill chosen for the challenge. The best one will win. The worst will be eliminated.
Contestants and progress
These tables indicate the placement of each artist throughout the season.
Progress Table notes:
Episodes begin with a flash challenge which is a task that usually does not deal with tattooing itself, but has the contestants utilize skills which are related to tattooing in an unusual way. Most of the time the skills highlighted in the flash challenge will be needed to complete the elimination tattoo. The winner of the flash challenge gets to pick which human canvas they would like to tattoo during the elimination tattoo and assign each contestant their canvas. For the elimination challenge, once the canvases are assigned,the contestants are given the 'rest of the evening' to meet with their canvas before tattooing them. On the day of elimination, the artist will be given a set amount of time to apply the tattoo the canvas and artist decided on the prior evening. Once the time expires, the judging panel reviews the works and the best tattoos of the week are recognized, the weak tattoos are pointed out, and one contestant is eliminated from the competition.
Flash Challenge: All artists, except for Kyle, must tattoo hundreds of canvases in a convention style. The winners will not only receive their own shop but will also not participate in the elimination tattoo. Winners: Matti, Scott, Ashley, Jim and Sausage
Elimination Tattoo: The remaining artists who did not win the flash challenge have been given one last chance to convince the judges that they deserve to be in the competition by tattooing in their own style. Winner: None - Eliminated: Damon
The Critique There was no winner for this challenge, but the judges selected Halo and Melissa as their favorites. Damon was eliminated for his lack of experience because the judges thought that the tattoos he did were not up to par for the challenge.
Human Canvas Verdict None
Skill of the Week: Dimension
Flash Challenge: Tattoo a three dimensional bug with the artist's own photo as a reference. Winner: Halo
Elimination Tattoo: The artists' first elimination tattoo has them creating an eye tattoo using the tattooing fundamentals with dimension being the key aspect. Dimension is defined as using shadows and highlights to make a tattoo appear to be popping off the skin. Winner: None - Quit: Ashley
The Critique The judges were not happy with most of the work, in fact they withheld the canvas voting, and eliminated the best tattoo position for this episode. In the end the reviews were low, and Ashley quit after having an emotional breakdown, but not before Kyle spoke his mind, which was not enough to prevent her from leaving the competition.
Human Canvas Verdict: None
Skill of the Week: Consistency
Flash Challenge: Tattoo identical tattoos on twins.
This challenge required some skill and patience. Working in five teams of three, one artist in a team designed a tattoo, and the other two artists applied the tattoo on a mirrored part of the body (e.g. one artist tattoos an eagle on the left calf while the other artist tattoos the same eagle on the right calf). The goal is to match each other's tattoo to the original drawing as possible.
Team 1: David, Randy, Matti
Team 2: Jay, Keith, Lydia
Team 3: Roland, Sausage, Bubba
Team 4: Ruck, Halo, Kyle
Team 5: Scott, Melissa, Jim
Winners: Team 3: Roland, Sausage, Bubba
Elimination Tattoo: Geometric Tattoos
Winner: Sausage
Eliminated: David
Winner's Worst Choice Roland
Human Canvas Verdict: David
The Critique: Overall the judges were somewhat optimistic after the previous grillings they had given to the artists.
Scott was praised for having a great design, good consistent shading, and not putting an unnecessary background.
Bubba had a decent design, but flawed in his fade to skin. His tattoo seemed to suddenly fall off instead of fade out. There were a lot of shaky lines and no solid color.
The design and application of the tattoo by Sausage was admired by the judges. They mentioned that the pattern fit the arm well and the line-work was great.
King Ruck received the first of a few lower end reviews, with the judges mentioning that the grey was not solid.
The judges said Lydia's negative spaces are close to perfect, but the saturation of the grey is where consistency was lost.
Roland received good reviews from the judges with regards to line-work and solid black saturation. Sausage placed him up for elimination because of his past applications.
Halo was praised for his solid color saturation and for overall doing a clean job.
Melissa received good reviews with regards to the design and small intricate details but had some shaky lines.
Keith received similar reviews to Melissa with regards to line-work. The squares were not even, and he failed to color all the way to the end.
They said Kyle's lines were straight, shading was well done, and symmetry was all there.
Jay had a poor presentation, got poor marks from the judges, however the tattoo he applied had great color, fading, and outline, it just didn't meet the technical definition of the challenge.
Jim was praised by the judges for a simple design with good execution. The judges did tell him that if he had added just a little more depth to his outline, he would have wowed even more.
Matti was lectured for his design. His overlay onto the skin was flawed.
Randy had good outlines, but overly worked his piece. Heavily saturated placement made consistency hard to pinpoint.
David received the harshest review. No consistency at all with possible scarring to the canvas resulting. Design appears to be slapped into place and a term that floated around the judges table was "butchered his arm"
Skill of the Week: Placement
Flash Challenge: The artists must use their own judgement along with care to decide a design and location to place in order to accentuate the 'flow' of the body.
Winner: Scott
Elimination Tattoo: Aquatic Tattoo incorporating placement.
Winner: Scott
Winner's Worst Choice: Randy
Human Canvas Verdict: Roland
Eliminated: Randy
The Critique: This challenge presented some issues to the various artists. The judges had some designs they liked, and others they did not.
The judges said that Scott executed good placement and had well shaded, well feathered, had applied an artistically pleasing design with a lot of depth.
Matti was slightly criticized for the black at the top but overall, a well done, nicely shaded bold tattoo with great line-work.
The judges thought Kyle was able to get a lot of detail one part of his design, but not in all, giving it an unfinished look.
Jim had a nice drawing and put small extra touches within the tattoo which made it look great.
Keith's tattoo was hard to read, due to the anchor and snake being of the same tone.
The judges felt that Halo had some issues when the flow of the design. He was also hit for his line-work
The judges said that Melissa's design appeared dull and unappealing.
King Ruck's tattoo was just a shark and a seal, with little to no indication that it was happening underwater. He received criticism for playing it too safe.
Roland received criticism from the judges because his overall design was poor. He had colors that were not solid and color blends that are not smooth.
Lydia received praise for her placement however the colors of her design hurt her.
Jay's overall result was decent, but the judges felt that the detail was lacking.
Bubba's critique was not what he expected. The judges said that he had a poorly drawn and executed design.
Sausage drew some awe from the judges. He was praised for having amazing drawing, detail and his placement made him shine brighter than the design itself.
Randy rolled out the session with weak outlines. The judges thought his work was too large for the amount of detail he applied. He also was coached about his color saturation levels.
Skill of the Week: Technical Precision
Flash Challenge: Tattoo a 'super power' Winner: Matti
Elimination Tattoo: Apply a tattoo of a X-Men character from the X-Men: Days of Future Past movie as chosen by the canvas. Winner: Scott Eliminated: Roland
The Critique The judges revealed their thoughts about this episode's content. Some artists passed, others failed. The film actor Hugh Jackman was brought into episode five as a guest judge. His view did not mimic the other judges, however the choice for winner did. The artists that received a good review for their use of realism, color, composition, and details in their work were Scott, Sausage, Matti, Melissa, Halo, and King Ruck. The artists that failed the color and detail aspect of the portrait color challenge were: Bubba, Lydia, Roland, Kyle, and Jim.
Winner's Worst Choice: Roland
Human Canvas Verdict: Lydia
Skill of the Week: Contrast
Flash Challenge: Tattoo each canvas with their personal beach; themed from Corona's 'Find your Beach' campaign. Winner: Matti - The winner of this Flash Challenge received a theme sponsored trip to Mexico.
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo a Neo-traditional lady or gentleman. Each tattoo will be applied in teams on the same canvas at the same time. Designs should complement each other.
The teams are Sausage and Melissa, Jim and Bubba, King Ruck and Keith. Scott and Matti, Halo and Kyle, and Lydia and Jay Winner: Sausage Eliminated: Keith and Bubba
The Critique Greg Christian was selected as a guest judge resulting from his experience in the tattoo industry. The top contenders of this challenge based on the elimination challenge parameters were Scott, Sausage, Jay, Melissa and Matti. The lowest ranked contestants as determined by failure to adhere to the limits of the challenge were Ruck, Jim, Bubba, Lydia, Halo, Keith and Kyle. Keith, Bubba and Ruck were in the bottom 3. Although Ruck had a shaky outline, the judges admired his determination to stay in the competition; he executed a tattoo on himself after his canvas passed out, while Keith did not because he felt that he should not be judged on a piece he was unable to finish. In the end, Keith was eliminated for failure to work under circumstances. Bubba was also eliminated for poor quality work despite having a great reference to work from.
Winner's Worst Choice: Keith
Human Canvas Verdict: Keith
Skill of the Week: Adaptability
Flash Challenge: Apply lettering with an image embedded Winner: Halo
Elimination Tattoo: Cover-up a tattoo
Winner: Halo
Eliminated: King Ruck, Jim
Winner's Worst Choice: Jim
Human Canvas Verdict: King Ruck
The Critique; The judges indicated that two artists would be eliminated in this challenge prior to the beginning of the challenge. To pass this challenge, the artists must design and apply a tattoo on top of another tattoo, essentially erasing the original with their new application. Aspects taken into account during this challenge were line-work, shading, coloring, placement, technicality, and readability.
Jim failed to cover up the tattoo, as the original tattoo could still be seen. He was criticized for using light colors over dark lettering.
Matti had a good tattoo and it was successfully covered, but was hit for the cross being curved.
Scott was praised for keeping the warm colors away from the cover-up. An overall well-done tattoo.
Sausage received good marks for his design, and his use of contrast with the heavy black and saturated color. Chris did hit him a little for not doing enough black in the face.
The judges felt that Lydia did a creative job covering up her tattoo, but it needed richer black in certain areas.
Halo was praised for his color saturation, placement and color blends. An overall great tattoo.
Gentle Jay's tattoo was overly dark, and he received criticism for not using any highlights within the tattoo. He was also hit for the eyes and the texture in the smoke.
Melissa had shaky line-work and certain parts did not fit together well.
Kyle Dunbar was harshly criticized for the design of his tattoo.
King Ruck received heavy criticism for attempting to cover up a black area with golden colored horseshoes. According to the judges, his tattoo "screamed" cover-up.
Skill of the Week: Black and Gray
Flash Challenge: Use black powder gun to burn an image onto a canvas. Winners: Halo, Scott
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo a demon using black and gray shading, using the negative space to accent. Winner: Sausage Eliminated: Lydia
The Critique Kyle was disqualified during this episode for physically assaulting one of the judges. Rob Zombie was selected as a guest judge. To pass this challenge, the artists had to tattoo a black and gray demon and feature negative space. The contestants that passed this challenge were Scott, Sausage, and Matti. The contestants that failed this challenge were Lydia, Melissa, Halo, and Jay.
Winner's Worst Choice: Lydia
Human Canvas Verdict: Melissa
Skill of the Week: Detail
Flash Challenge: Create a custom mouth grill with a dremel for Brandon Rios. Winner: Scott
Elimination Tattoo: Design and apply a warrior tattoo; era and type of warrior not restricted. Winner: Matti - Eliminated: None of the artists were eliminated.
The Critique To pass this challenge, the artists must tattoo a warrior with details to illustrate the origin. All of the contestants passed this challenge. The judges decided not to eliminate an artist this episode, and indicated the reason was because no one should be eliminated for giving "a good tattoo". All artists applied satisfactory tattoos, albeit some were better than others.
Winner's Worst Choice: Jay
Human Canvas Verdict: Jay
Controversy: Prior to the critique, Jay found evidence of tracing in Scott's tattoo, which he recognized from an online source. However, the judges did not take any action after Jay revealed the incident during the critique. Their decision led to a public outcry, with many fans questioning the integrity of the competition and some even accusing the judges of favoring Scott over other artists.
Skill of the Week: Flexibility
Flash Challenge: There was no flash challenge
Elimination Tattoo: Create a collaboration tattoo with another artist. Judging will be done as a team. Winner: Scott and Halo
Human Canvas Verdict: There was no human canvas vote
Winner's Worst Choice: There was no winners worst selection
The Critique To pass this challenge, the artists must create a collaboration tattoo with another artist in teams of two, alternating who actually applies the tattoo every hour. The team that passed this challenge was Halo and Scott. The teams that failed were Jay and Melissa, Sausage and Matti.
Face Off Challenge This episode has a head to head challenge to determine which artist will be eliminate. The two facing off are Melissa and Jay. The tattoo they are to apply are identical, designed by the guest judge, Luke Wessman. There was a 4-hour time limit for this face off. Face-off Winner: Melissa - Eliminated: Jay
Skill of the Week: Proportions
Flash Challenge: Create a proportionally accurate sketch of The Statue of Liberty. Use the sketch as the only reference to apply a tattoo. Winner: Halo
Elimination Tattoo: Winner: Matti - Eliminated: Melissa
The Critique To pass this challenge, the artists must tattoo a Japanese style snake on the ribs of the client with all aspects of tattooing being applied, however proportion is the primary focus. The artist that passed this challenge was Matti. The artists that failed this challenge were Melissa, Sausage, Halo and Scott. Halo, Scott and Melissa were in the bottom 3; Melissa was the artist eliminated. Although the judges stated that Melissa did not have the worst tattoo of the day, they could not overlook the fact that she was the only artist in the top 5 to never win an elimination tattoo challenge.
Winner's Worst Choice: Halo
Human Canvas Verdict: Scott
Skill of the Week: Combine all skills of tattooing
Flash Challenge: There was no flash challenge this episode.
Elimination Tattoo: Winner: Sausage - Eliminated: Halo
The Critique This was a two tattoo session challenge. To pass this challenge, the artists must tattoo a design decided upon by the canvases. Each canvas has survived cancer and has scarring from surgery in the first session. The second half of the elimination challenge required the artists to cover-up tattoos that were done during the competition by the eliminated contestants. However, one of the tattoos was unsafe to cover-up due to a bad reaction to the ink; so, one contestant was assigned an open canvas.
Skill of the Week: Combine all skills of tattooing
Elimination Tattoo: Winner: Scott - Runner Up: Sausage - Eliminated: Matti
The Critique Presented in front of a live audience, broadcast live on the parent network, Ink Master Live combines all aspects of tattooing to present the best artist this season. The remaining artists Scott, Matti and Sausage gave it their all for a chance to become Ink Master.
During this episode, the judges announced a new format for season 5. Called Ink Master Rivals and set to air in September 2014, this season will see the return of Joshua Hibbard and Jason Clay Dunn. It was also said that each artist will bring their own rival. Whether the rival would be from previous seasons artists lineup was not clear.
On October 27, 2015, it was reported that Scott Marshall died in his sleep. An autopsy later revealed that Marshall died of intoxication from heroin and benzodiazepine, a combination the Chief Deputy Coroner reporting says may be used to relax muscles. He leaves behind his wife, Johanna, and their three children. He was 41 years old.
