The seventh season of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master (subtitled as Ink Master: Revenge ) premiered on Spike on March 1 and concluded on May 24, 2016 with a total of 13 episodes.
This season features eight returning veteran artists as they face eight new artists in an elimination-style competition for a $100,000 prize and the title of Ink Master. The returning artists are James Vaughn (season 1), Sarah Miller (season 2), Jesse Smith (season 2), Jime Litwalk (season 3), Sausage (season 4), Matti Hixson (season 4), Cleen Rock One (season 5) and St. Marq (season 6). The new artists are Alex Rockoff, Anthony Michaels, Ashley Velazquez, Christian Buckingham, Corey Davis, Cris Gherman, Megan Jean Morris, and Picasso Dular.
Judges, guest judges, and special appearances
The judging panel consists of three primary judges. During the final decision, they will vote for one of the bottom artists and the artist with two or three votes will be eliminated from the competition.
The judges for season seven are Chris Núñez, Oliver Peck, and Dave Navarro who also serves as host of the show. No guest judges appeared for the first time.
Judging and ranking
The judge listing types are:
Judging Panel
Human Canvas Voting
Note: The returning contestant order is in the order that they arrived in.
Credit Order: Anthony, Ashley, Cris, Picasso, Corey, Megan Jean, Christian, Alex, Matti, St. Marq, Jime, Sarah, Sausage, Cleen, Jesse, James
Legend
INKMASTER The contestant won the competition and was named Ink Master.
RUNNER UP The contestant was the runner-up on Ink Master.
3RD PLACE The contestant was 3rd place on Ink Master.
WIN The contestant won best tattoo of the day.
F/O The contestant won the face-off.
HIGH The contestant was given an honorable mention by the judges.
HIGH The contestant was considered to be among the top.
LOW The contestant was among the bottom group in the judges recall.
LOW The contestant was voted worst by the human canvas jury.
LOW The contestant was considered to be in the bottom.
OUT The contestant was eliminated from the competition.
OUT The contestant was voted worst by the human canvas jury and eliminated from the competition.
First aired March 1, 2016
Skill of the week: Fundamentals
Flash Challenge: The 8 new artists squared off in a three-part challenge. They were given four hours to first do a full-body sketch of a nude model, assemble both a liner and shader machine from Seth Cifferi, and then tattoo the drawing they did earlier with the machines they built on a dead pig.
Winner: Christian Buckingham
Returning Artist: St. Marq
Elimination Tattoo: The new artists were surprised to learn from the judges that they will be faced with a new returning artist from a previous Ink Master season each week, and that the returning artist each week is given the opportunity to choose the elimination tattoo. St. Marq challenges the artists to tattoo one of the seven deadly sins in black and grey, using only shading needles.
Tattoo Critique: The judges were impressed with Christian, Megan Jean, and Anthony's technical abilities and artistry, with Christian and Megan Jean being the judge's top two. Picasso impressed with his drawing, but was criticized for lack of contrast and not leaving any skin breaks. The judges thought Cris' tattoo was hard to read, but technically sound. The lack of detail underwhelmed the judges in Alex's tattoo. The anatomy of Ashley's tattoo was unappealing. Corey struggled with details and his tattoo was rough and not very technically sound. St. Marq was heavily criticized, as his tattoo was strange, not detailed, and overall unappealing. Oliver Peck referred to his challenge as "one of the worst backfires in Ink Master history."
Best Tattoo of the Day: Megan Jean Morris
Human Canvas Jury: The jury brought St. Marq to the bottom due to the poor placement of the tattoo in relation to the canvas' other tattoos. However, the canvas said he was happy with the tattoo.
Elimination: Corey and Ashley joined St. Marq in the bottom three. St. Marq was criticized for his poor placement and unnecessary large field of black. The judges compared Corey's tattoo to St. Marq's, saying the quality didn't stack up in spite of Marq's flaws. Ashley was told her shading was not smooth and not very technical. Corey is eliminated in a 2–1 vote over St. Marq.
Eliminated: Corey Davis
First aired March 8, 2016
Skill of the week: Contrast
Flash Challenge: The artists work in teams of two to make a sculpture out of recyclable trash. Then, they must use a beamlight on their sculpture to create a shadow that has contrast.
Winner(s): Ashley Velazquez & Alex Rockoff
Returning Artist: Cleen Rock One
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo neo-traditional hot rods and choppers.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Cleen Rock One
Human Canvas Jury: Cris Gherman
Elimination: Alex Rockoff, Cris Gherman and, & Ashley Velazquez
Eliminated: Cris Gherman
First aired March 16, 2016
Skill of the week: Creativity
Flash Challenge: Working in teams of two, the artists use salt to create their masterpiece.
Winner(s): Christian Buckingham & Megan Jean Morris
Returning Artist: Sausage
Elimination Tattoo: Capture the canvas's likeness in a comic book character tattoo.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Anthony Michaels
Human Canvas Jury: Cleen Rock One
Elimination: Cleen Rock One, Picasso Dular and Ashley Velazquez
Eliminated: Ashley Velazquez
First aired March 22, 2016
Skill of the week: Detail
Flash Challenge: Tattooing a fingerprint of the canvas's loved one, scanned by Adrian Gardner.
Winner: Cleen Rock One
Returning Artist: Matti Hixson
Elimination Tattoo: The artists must tattoo a Venetian mask, focusing on detail.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Cleen Rock One
Human Canvas Jury: Anthony Michaels
Bottom four: Picasso Dular, Alex Rockoff, Anthony Michaels and Megan Jean Morris
Eliminated: Picasso Dular
First aired March 29, 2016
Skill of the week: Color Theory
Flash Challenge: The artists head to Coney Island Freak Show, where they must work in teams of two to airbrush a pair of contortionists and create a mind blowing illusion.
Winner(s): Megan Jean Morris & Sausage
Returning Artist: Jime Litwalk
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo a dinosaur, in New School style.
Tattoo Critique: Jime was praised for his drawing and line-weights but was criticized for his tattoo's darkness. The judges praised Cleen for his hot-and-cold color palette, and for his ability to cleanly saturate a large amount color over a large area of skin with minimal skin trauma. They thought that Matti's TV design was weak, and criticized a stray line. The judges loved Sausage's color saturation and detail. Christian's tattoo was technically strong and used color theory well, but the style was not quite "New School." Megan Jean's tattoo was technically applied well but the perspective of her drawing made it hard to read. Anthony's tattoo was designed very well, and overall very clean. Alex was heavily criticized for his drawing. St. Marq's tattoo was filled with technical problems, drawing problems, and weak color theory.
Best Tattoo of the Day: Sausage
Human Canvas Jury: Alex Rockoff
Bottom three: Megan Jean Morris, Alex Rockoff and St. Marq
Eliminated: St. Marq
First aired April 5, 2016
Skill of the week: Composition
Flash Challenge: Working in teams of two, the artists create a dynamic composition on a dirty semi truck using a power washer.
Winner(s): Anthony Michaels & Matti Hixson
Returning Artist: Sarah Miller
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo a surrealistic female.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Megan Jean Morris
Human Canvas Jury: Alex Rockoff
Bottom four: Jime Litwalk, Sarah Miller, Alex Rockoff and Cleen Rock One
Eliminated: Alex Rockoff
Episode 7: Knuckle Sandwich
First aired April 12, 2016
Skill of the week: Precision
Flash Challenge: Design custom lettering on the knuckles, without using references.
Winner: Cleen Rock One
Returning Artist: Jesse Smith
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo a black & grey portrait of a political figure.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Christian Buckingham
Human Canvas Jury: Cleen Rock One
Bottom three: Cleen Rock One, Jime Litwalk and Sarah Miller
Eliminated: Sarah Miller
First aired April 19, 2016
Skill of the week: Legibility
Flash Challenge: The artists work in teams of two to make a large-scale legible design, using pushpins.
Winner: Cleen Rock One & Christian Buckingham
Returning Artist: James Vaughn
Elimination Tattoo: Tattoo a Japanese dragon with water.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Cleen Rock One
Human Canvas Jury: Sausage
Bottom four: Jime Litwalk, Sausage, Matti Hixon and Megan Jean Morris
Eliminated: Megan Jean Morris
First aired April 26, 2016
Skill of the week: Texture
Elimination Tattoo: The artists work in teams of two to tattoo a full set of wings on the canvas's back at the same time, with one artist working on a "good" wing and the other tattooing an "evil" wing.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: James Vaughn
Bottom two: Jime Litwalk and Sausage
Face Off: Jime and Sausage were given one last chance to redeem themselves as Dave asked them each to pick an artist to face for a head-to-head elimination tattoo. (James was exempt from being chosen, since his tattoo was voted Best of the Day.) The chosen artist picked the style and subject for their face-off. Sausage picked Matti and Jime picked Cleen.
Eliminated: Jime Litwalk and Sausage
First aired May 03, 2016
Skill of the week: Adaptability
Elimination Tattoo: The artists work in teams of three to tattoo American traditional clipper ship with one member from each team working on line work, shading or color.
Tattoo Critique: The teams must decide the weakest member who will then be put up for elimination.
Face-Off Tattoo: Anthony and Jesse have six hours to adaptability to tattoo their own subject and style from scratch without any references.
Eliminated: Jesse Smith
First aired May 10, 2016
Skill of the week: Ingenuity
Flash Challenge: Tattooing a design on the canvas's foreheads.
Winner: James Vaughn
Elimination Tattoo: The artists have to use ingenuity to cover up the canvas' despised tattoo.
Tattoo Critique:
Best Tattoo of the Day: Anthony Michaels
Human Canvas Jury: Christian Buckingham
Bottom three: Cleen Rock One, Matti Hixson and Christian Buckingham
Eliminated: Matti Hixson
First aired May 17, 2016
Elimination Tattoo: The new artists finally get their revenge by picking the veteran artist they want to face in addition to picking the style and subject. Anthony picked Cleen in the battle to tattoo a realistic black and grey woman they drew while Christian and James duke it out in the realistic full bodied black and grey wolf tattoo. The winner of each face-off will advance to the live finale.
Tattoo Critique: The new artists beat out the veteran artists to earn their place in the finale.
Face-Off Tattoo:The veterans have one last chance to earn a spot in the finale with them calling their own shots this time. While James picked a Japanese fu dog on a peony, Cleen settled in on New School with a snake wrapping a skull on top of a dagger.
Eliminated: James Vaughn
Finale Tattoo - Part 1: The final three artists are tasked to do 48 hours of tattooing where they have to tattoo each canvas for 24 hours. In the first part, the judges chose the style for each artist they struggled tattooing during the competition. They then must tattoo their assigned style to the chest with Anthony doing Japanese full color, Christian doing American Traditional and Cleen working on fine line black and grey.
Finale Tattoo - Part 2: Dave gave the artists good news where they have to tattoo a sleeve in the style of their choice. The judges and the viewers will choose which one artist to advance to the final two along with the second artist chosen by the jury of eliminated artists while the artist who didn't advance to the final will join the jury.
First aired May 24, 2016
The artists will do their tattoos in their hometown before returning to New York to present their final work. The winner of the chest piece tattoo that was voted by the fans will receive $20,000 from Gildan USA.
Tattoo Rematch: Matti and Sausage square off with the winner, who was chosen by the loudest reaction from the audience, tattooing their winning design on the artist who loses this rematch.
Advanced: Anthony Michaels
Jury's Choice: Cleen Rock One
Winner: Anthony Michaels
