Wow another tattoo TV show. I was feeling a little optimistic after Ink Masters. Everyone was expecting the worst and we were all somewhat surprised that the show wasn't totally terrible. Of course we all know and love Oliver so we knew it had that going for it but the Miami/LA/NY Ink debacle has left most in the biz sick to death of seeing our beloved industry raked over the coals of popular culture. Tattoo Wars was well received mostly because the show focused on the tattooing and not all of the tedious manufactured drama served up on the "reality" sets. So it's nice to see some shows focusing on the tattoos again instead of all the silly stuff.

NY Ink irked me because it created a fake business in an impossible setting that all of a sudden we had to compete with. I was hearing things like Ami getting two million for the season and then he's whining on the show about how he hopes they are successful. Meanwhile busses are riding around the city with his picture on the side. People coming to visit the city used to look online, find our shop and get tattooed at our place. Now there's this made up shop funded by a TV network that exists for us to lose business to. Luckily we've been around a long time and have a solid reputation but I still resent the intrusion.

Ink Master was interesting. The hacks (B-Tat) got kicked off pretty quick and Al Fliction was very entertaining for all of us.  Dave Navarro made a pretty good host while bringing in some star power.  Somehow Best Ink just comes off as a second rate Ink Master. I have no idea how they picked some American Idol loser with a few lame tattoos on her shoulder. (Really Oxygen? Carly Smithson wasn't available??) A super annoying aspect of both of these shows is the claim that their contestants are "10 of the country's most creative and skilled artists". That's stretching things by anyone's standards (besides some casting director who has never looked at a tattoo before).

Ink Masters seemed to give the artists a pretty good chance to really come up with their best work. I think they had all night to draw (I didn't actually see every episode) and the only pressure to come up with something on the fly was for the flash challenge so just a dead pig or a piece of paper was going to be stuck with an ill prepared design. This last episode of Best Ink only gave artists an hour to draw up their tattoos and swapped the "skins" on them mid way. BTW TV people please stop with the stupid lingo (also really annoying). So the artists really didn't get the prep time they would have wanted and the viewers were left with some pretty crappy half realized concepts in another annoying tattoo show.

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Tyler said:

This is awesome! Stopped recording this show right after roman left. He was the only reason worth watching! The best ink were gonna see now is on the artists! Londons neck by Sean Herman and Jon Mesa's left arm/shoulder by Nate Beavers!!

April 24, 2012

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