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Ink Master (season 4) is the fourth season of the Spike reality tattooing competition series, Ink Master. It premiered on February 25, 2014. The rules and format mirror those of the past with some changes to make it unique from previous seasons, but not so extreme as to make it stand out from the series. Kyle Dunbar, contestant from Season three of Ink Master, made a return. Season four follows seventeen tattoo artists competing against each other in an elimination-style competition that will leave the last person standing with the title of Ink Master and a $100,000 prize and a feature in Inked Magazine.

Judges, guest judges, and special appearances

Judges

• Dave Navarro (Host and judge)
• Chris Núñez (Judge)
• Oliver Peck (Judge)

Guest judges

Flash challenge

• Brandon Rios (Episode 9)

Elimination challenge

• 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)

Special appearances

Persons who will receive a tattoo in a competition or receive some type of work from artist in the competition are considered guests, and will be listed in this section. They generally have no impact on the final judgments except in the human canvas voting.

Judging and ranking

The way Ink Master ranking works is similar in each season. 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 judge listing types are:

• Judging Panel

The judging panel consists of three primary judges plus any guest judge for that episode if one is chosen.

• Guest Judge

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. In any case, the weight appeared to be equal regardless of guest judge qualification.

• Audience Voting

Audience voting which was introduced in season two is done through Facebook and Twitter. The audience vote directly effected the contestant lineup for season three. Based on highest vote count, the audience decided on the return.

• Human Canvas Voting

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 effect the final decision of the judging panel. This change was new to the Ink Master series.

• Winner's Worst Selection

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. This selection was first introduced in season four.

Win or lose

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. In the words of Dave Navarro, "Please pack up your machines, and close shop".

Contestants and progress

Flash Challenge Progress

Elimination challenge progress

Credit Order: Matti, Walter, Scott, Melissa, Jim, Bubba, Jay, King Ruck, David, Lydia, Halo, Randy, Ashley, Damon, Roland, Keith, Kyle

 Legend

 INKMASTER  The contestant won the competition and was named Ink Master.

 RUNNER UP  The contestant was the runner-up on Ink Master.

 WIN  The contestant won best tattoo of the week.

 HIGH  The contestant was given a honorable mention in the judges recall.

 LOW  The contestant was among the bottom group in the judges recall.

 LOW  The contestant was voted worst artist by the human canvas jury.

 LOW  The contestant was voted worst artist by the human canvas jury, selected for elimination by the challenge winner, and ranked low by the judges in the recall.

 EDGE  The contestant was selected for elimination by the elimination challenge winner, however not eliminated.

 OUT  The contestant was eliminated in the flash challenge.

 OUT  The contestant was eliminated from the competition.

 OUT  The contestant was voted worst by the human canvas jury and was also eliminated by the judges.

 OUT  The contestant was chosen worst by the elimination challenge winner and was also eliminated by the judges.

  OUT  The contestant was chosen worst by the elimination challenge winner, chosen worst in the human canvas vote, and was also eliminated by the judges.

 QUIT  The contestant quit the competition.

 DQ  The contestant was disqualified from the competition.

Progress Table notes:

^Note c1 : Full name of contestant not given.
^Note c2 : There was no HIGH placement in the judges' recall.
^Note c3 : Ashley quit the competition before final judgment. Ashley was also chosen for elimination by the judges.
^Note c4 : This elimination challenge was performed in teams, however each tattoo was evaluated individually. There were two artists eliminated this episode.
^Note c5 : The status of EDGE was created to differentiate from the LOW category, where a LOW faced elimination based on performance in relation to the established criteria for the challenge. The elimination challenge winner may select his candidate for elimination based on personal feelings, not necessarily the performance of the artist in the episode associated with the rating of EDGE. Episode 3 is an example of this scenario.
^Note c6 : Before the flash challenge, Kyle was disqualified due to his physical altercation with Chris Nunez, who said in the previous episode that he should have been at the bottom.
^Note c7 :No contestant was eliminated this week.

Episodes

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, as a new twist from the first season, assign each contestant their canvas. The contestants are then given a chance to meet with their canvas before tattooing them the next day when they will be given a set amount of time to do the tattoo. A judging panel then commences in which the best tattoos of the week are recognized, the weak tattoos are pointed out, and one contestant is eliminated from the competition.

Earn it!

• Episode 1 was first aired on February 25, 2014.
• 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 their 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 There was no official human canvas vote for this challenge.

Bug Out

Episode 2 was first aired on March 4, 2014.

• 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. 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 - Next Episode Teaser unavailable

Tatt Ganged

• Episode 3 was first aired on March 11, 2014.
• 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 others tattoo to the original drawing as possible. Team 1: David, Randy, Maddy; 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 Eliminates: David
• The Critique Overall the judges were somewhat optimistic after the previous grillings they had given to the artists. Bubba had a decent design, but flawed in his fade to skin. His tattoo seemed to suddenly fall off instead of fade out. The design and application of the tattoo applied by Sausage was admired by the judges. King Ruck received the first of a few lower end reviews. The judges said Lydia's design was not up to par. Roland received good reviews from the judges considering his past work. Sausage placed him up for elimination because of his past applications. Melissa had shaky line-work and failed to have consistency. Keith received similar reviews to Melissa. Kyle received some of the criticism from the judges. They said his 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. Dimensions were popping and jaws were dropping. 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, but he did have consistency. 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".
• Winner's Worst Choice Winner: Roland Human Canvas Verdict Winner: David
• Next Episode TeaserC.C. Sabathia is slated to be a guest judge in the elimination challenge. Natural beauty prevails with possible nude canvases being tattooed.

Nude & Tattooed

• Episode 4 was first aired on March 18, 2014.

• 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 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. The judges thought Kyle was able to get a lot of detail in parts of his design, but not in all. The judges felt that Halo had some issues when the flow of the design. The judges said that Melissa's design appeared dull and unappealing. Roland received criticism from the judges because his overall design was poor. 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. 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. Winner's Worst Choice Winner: Randy - Human Canvas Verdict winner: Roland
• Next Episode Teaser Hugh Jackman joins the judges in an X-men themed challenge concept.

X-Men's Hugh Jackman

Episode 5 was first aired on March 25, 2014.

• 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. Following the sneak peek of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Hugh Jackman was brought into Episode 5 as a guest judge due to his notoriety of playing Wolverine in the X-men series. 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
• Next Episode Teaser Things start getting physical with a previous season contestant.

2 on 1 Tat-Astrophe

Episode 6 was first aired on April 1, 2014

• 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, 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, and Matti. The lowest ranked contestants as determined by failure to adhere to the limits of the challenge were Jim, Bubba, Lydia, Jay, Halo, Keith, Kyle and Melissa. In the end, Keith was eliminated for failure to work under circumstances. Bubba was eliminated for poor quality work. Winner's Worst Choice: Winner: Keith - Human Canvas Verdict: Winner: Keith
• Next Episode Taser The challenge heats up and the artists get tense.

Artist Slaughter

Episode 7 was first aired on April 8, 2014.

• 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
• 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. The contestants that passed this challenge were Sausage, Halo, Scott, and Lydia. The contestant that placed in the middle ground was Matti. The contestants that failed this challenge were King Ruck, Jim, Kyle, Jay, and Melissa.
• Winner's Worst Choice Winner: Jim - Human Canvas Verdict Winner: King Ruck.
• Next Episode Teaser Tempers become heated between artist judges.

Ink Master Explosion

Episode 8 was first aired on April 15, 2014.

• 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 CritiqueKyle 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 must tattoo a black and gray demon and display 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 ChoiceWinner: Lydia - Human Canvas Verdict Winner: Melissa
• Next Episode Teaser One contestant faces the wrath of the other contestants and the judges when an artist discovers evidence of someone tracing with other sketches.

Fighting Dirty

Episode 9 was first aired April 22, 2014.

• 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 Winner:Jay - Human Canvas Verdict Winner:Jay
• Next Episode TeaserThe challenges are taking their toll on the competition participants. A surprise is waiting for one of the artists.

References

1. "Ink Master Bios: Season Four". Spike TV. Retrieved 2014-03-02. Blondel's last name given at his bio capsule
2. ^ "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | Earn It!". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
3. ^ "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | Bug Out". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
4. "Ink Master: TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 2012-01-13. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
5. "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | Tatt Ganged". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
6. "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | Nude & Tattooed". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
7. "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | X-Men's Hugh Jackman". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
8. "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | 2 On 1 Tat-Astrophe". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
9. "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | Artist Slaughter". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
10. "Ink Master | Tattoo Competition Reality Show | Full Episodes | Spike | Ink Master Explosion". SPIKE. Retrieved 2014-04-27.

External links

• Official website
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1865740/

• 2014 television seasons
• Tattooing
• Reality television series