- Oh, hey there. - Welcome, ladies.
- How's it going?
- Welcome to Black Cobra.
- We're excited to be in your neck of the woods.
- Yeah.
- We've got a lot of talent in Little Rock.
- Blake, one of our artists here at Black Cobra,
is competing today, so that should be interesting.
- Oh, representing the home team.
♪ ♪
- I'm Blake Cranford.
I've been tattooing for five years.
The style I do, it's a mixture
of neo-traditional, new school,
a little bit of realism.
I know there's tattooers in this area
with a lot of experience.
I don't have that, but I have a lot more talent,
and the sheer will to win.
- Well, there he is.
- I am assuming you are Blake.
- I am. - Got some big shoes to fill.
- They taught me well.
- We wish you the best of luck.
Represent Black Cobra really well.
- We'll see, we'll see.
- Good luck, man. - Bye.
- Thanks, you guys. - See you guys later.
- You work in such a cool studio under two great artists.
- Yeah, I'm a young tattooer,
started at, like, a street shop.
Matt saw my drawings and hired me.
I learned a lot from all them.
- How's the tattoo scene here in Little Rock?
- Kind of old-school.
For a long time, shops had, like,
weird rivalries, and like, wouldn't talk to each other.
- It's serious around here, you mean.
- So it's not necessarily a friendly sort of tattoo scene.
- It's crazy-ass old tattooer dudes.
♪ ♪
- My name's Chris Thomas.
I've been tattooing 20 years.
I specialize in high-contrast black and gray.
If you tattoo in Little Rock, you know of Chris Thomas.
And if you don't, it's time you knew.
- Well, this is going to be interesting today.
It's always juicy when it's personal, you know?
Hey. - Hello, ladies.
- How's it going? - How are y'all doing?
- How are you? - What's up, man?
- What's up, dude? - You know this guy?
- No, he doesn't know me.
- I don't know you; I just know who you are.
Matt used to work for him.
- He walked out of my door and opened this place.
- So you're coming in heated already.
- As soon as someone spawns a shop from my studio that's
in the same area, you're taking food out of my mouth.
At the end of the day, this is how I feed my family
and take care of everything.
We're not splitting hairs, here.
I'm tired of splitting hairs.
♪ ♪
- My name is Nick Peirce,
and I've been tattooing for eight years.
I'm the best photo-realism artist in central Arkansas.
Being a tattoo artist and being a Christian,
I am different from anybody else.
I'm not in the normal, if there is a normal in the industry.
- This is already interesting as it is, but we have even one
more competitor coming in.
- Oh, there he is, little lamb.
- I'm here. - Little lamb?
- Oh, I just called him that when he worked at my shop.
- Oh, worked, past tense? - Yeah.
- I was just busier than he was,
and so I thought it was time to step out, do my own thing.
- He already had it planned,
but he didn't want to tell the boss.
- He packed up my stuff by the door, had it ready for me.
- Today seems like it's kind of personal.
- I'd say it's a little bit personal.
- Like, let's tattoo.
- All right, you guys ready to get this
[bleep] started?
- I'm ready. - Hell yeah.
- Let's do it.
- There's gonna be two elimination tattoos,
and one person's gonna be eliminated each round.
- Sick. - Whoever can survive all this
madness and makes it to the end
faces off against one of us.
And if you can beat one of us,
you get a spot on "Ink Master" and a shot at $100,000.
- What's up? That's it. That's it.
That's what we're here for.
- Wait till you hear this part.
- The Angel that you have to face off against is...
Kelly Doty.
- Hi. - Surprise.
- Hey, you guys, I spend a lot of time indoors,
basically just honing my craft.
I don't know if that's intimidating,
but it's all I have. - Good luck.
- It's gonna be a good one to go against, for sure.
- I'm stoked on it.
- Well, we're bringing the competition to you guys.
You know, your town actually got its name
after a small rock formation on the Arkansas River.
But another little rock
that Arkansas's known for is diamonds.
Diamonds are actually the state gem of Arkansas.
- You guys are gonna have two hours to tattoo any style,
as long as it's diamonds.
- Whoo, that's gonna be tough.
- Lots of straight lines, lots of angles, lots of highlights.
- Lots of light. - Well, your canvases have
been randomly assigned,
and they are completely open. - Sweet.
- And, as always, we are going to be judging
on very technical criteria,
style, shading, outline, and overall application.
- I know you guys seem confident,
but at the end of the day, one person is gonna be eliminated.
- Somebody looks a little nervous.
- I'm in my shop. I'm fine.
- There's a lot of facets to this competition,
and this is gonna be a hard one to see
which one of you shines the brightest.
[laughter]
- Well, get set up and we'll send in your canvases.
- Awesome. - Good luck, guys.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys.
You have two hours to tattoo diamonds in any style.
And your time starts now.
- Put the stencil on you.
- Tattooing a diamond is
literally tattooing an optical illusion.
We want to see that perfect geometry,
the light source, the shadows.
- That cool? - Yeah.
- We want to see those clean, crisp lines.
- That's gonna look really good right there.
- I want you to convince me
that what I'm looking at is a diamond.
- All right, girl. You be good.
We'll make some nice lines and win some [bleep].
♪ ♪
- Pulling out some tricks over here.
- What's going on?
- Little bit of realism, a little bit of neo-traditional,
to show a little versatility.
My biggest distraction right now is Chris.
He taught me a lot of great things,
but there was another side that was extreme,
constant tension in the shop.
I just couldn't take it anymore.
♪ ♪
Too high.
Being a Christian, my faith is important to me,
not only on a personal level, but I want to set a good
example for my kids, how to work hard.
- Go!
- And go for your dreams.
Whoo!
- Since there is a little bit of a rivalry happening,
are you more motivated to surpass Chris?
- Absolutely.
I think that's everybody's goal.
- Everyone wants to surpass Chris.
- That's not a bad to position to be in.
Means you've got some good [bleep] going on.
- [bleep] no. You don't think-- I didn't earn that yesterday.
It's taken a long damn time.
♪ ♪
- Speedy McGees over here.
- I just want it to look like
a piece of art and make it hold up.
I know I can do one hell of a diamond.
This is my time.
I'm here to crush this [bleep].
♪ ♪
- It's cold. - It is cold.
It's a cold day by the river.
To have someone like my wife Joy beside me,
she's like the voice of reason.
- Playtime. - Time to run.
Don't mind all the other dogs.
[barking]
Look at Spike! I'm just an asshole.
I'm just crazy. I'm just who I am.
Why you got to act like me?
- All right, you guys. 30 minutes left.
- I don't think Blake's gonna get done.
I think he's asleep.
- Losing to both these guys would be
super embarrassing to me, honestly.
I feel like I'm better than them.
If I win this, I am one step closer to going
up against one of my idols, and tattooing against Kelly,
which is like a dream come true.
♪ ♪
All right, kick this one off again.
- Watch the master.
- When I first started tattooing,
my parents were not into it at all.
My mom asked me multiple times if I would go get a real job.
- I'm going for these easy ones.
- If I win this competition, this would make it seem
to my parents that I have chosen the right path,
and that this is what I should be doing.
- You lose. You lose, buddy.
For somebody that's so good with their hands,
you're not very good at this game.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
That's it, stop tattooing!
- Whoo, made it. - Got it.
- It's like my favorite diamond tattoo I've ever done.
- That was a little bit of an unexpected turnout.
- I'm just gonna say it.
Blake blew them out of the water.
- That top open area of the diamond is so smooth
with that gradient from gray to white.
- It looks like he used a ruler to make some of those lines.
Meanwhile, when I look at Chris's,
it's hard to tell what it is from far away.
- The first thing that's distracting me from anything
else is that swirly background.
- But I love that soft pepper shading in there.
At least he made an attempt at
a really dynamic diamond,
rather than a very stiff, classic,
here's a diamond-shaped diamond like Nick did.
- I have no problems with the application
that Nick showed us today.
His linework is beautiful.
His color is perfectly saturated.
- But would pearls and beads defy gravity
sitting on top of a diamond?
I don't know about that.
- They both just made wackadoodle choices.
- This guy decided he was gonna do a two-hour tattoo
with 35 damn circles in them.
- I feel like I stepped outside the norm.
- It ain't about stepping out the box.
I ain't trying to do tricks, man.
I'm trying to make a complete piece
that looks good, stands off the damn skin,
and everybody can tell what the [bleep] it is.
Not just some bull[bleep] with your ten tricks.
That's all you've got is ten different tricks, bro.
Bro, you got an ant farm at the bottom of that mother[bleep].
- It definitely sounds like this is a little more personal
than just this competition.
- It is. - To be honest with you,
we think three good tattoos were done today.
But there was a pretty clear winner for today's challenge.
- Crystal clear.
- The person that wins today's elimination tattoo is
Blake.
- Yes. Hell, yeah.
That's what's up.
- That linework, the gradients that you had in your shading,
the softness in the flower,
it's killer, man.
- Thank you.
Being a young tattooer and beating a guy that's been
tattooing for 20 years and another guy that's been
tattooing longer than me as well is super impressive.
- It's that's what you choose, that's what it is.
- Do you not agree?
- I mean, you seem a little salty about it.
- I'm not salty about it.
I just think I did the most cohesive tattoo out there.
- You picked probably the most beautiful angle
of the diamond to showcase.
But it looked like you attempted realism
in the diamond, and the background became
something completely different,
and it was distracting.
- I think he played it way more safe
trying to do all these tricks.
He's trying to make y'all, like--it ain't about tricks.
- I didn't just do a diamond.
I made it flow with the part of the body.
It was more of a feminine piece.
- You did awesome work on that
blue rendering of that diamond.
But those little pearls could've really used
a solid outline around them.
They just look kind of weak.
- I did take more risks, which I probably shouldn't have.
- The interesting thing that puts you both in this rather
precarious position right now is your choices.
- One of you will be eliminated today.
The artist that's gonna be eliminated today is...
♪ ♪
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