There are no more shops entering the competition.
So you have made it to the top eight.
This puts you in an elite group,
as one of your shops will earn $200,000,
a feature in "Inked" magazine,
and the title of Ink Master.
Plus, for the first time ever,
the title of Master Shop.
- Yeah.
- However, this battle is about to get even more intense.
Today, there is no flash challenge.
We are moving directly into the next elimination tattoo.
- [bleep]
- This week, you're being tested on adaptability.
- Oh. - What haven't we adapted to?
We adapted to the time frame.
Adapted to team tattooing. Adapted to all the pressure.
We've been adapting this whole time.
- Today, you must tattoo
the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- Sweet. - As described in the Bible,
the Horsemen are symbolic descriptions
of different events depicting the end of time.
Conquest, War,
Famine, and Death.
In the ultimate test of adaptability,
four artists from four different shops
will tattoo the four different Horsemen...
- What? - On the same canvas
at the same time.
- Holy, [bleep]. - [groans]
- Four tattooers doing four different tattoos
on the same canvas.
You realize the odds that this person's gonna tap out?
That's insane, dude.
And what happens if they tap out?
That's four teams going down. - Oh my God.
- That means only one artist from each shop will tattoo.
It's up to your shop to determine
who will carry the weight and represent your team
in this elimination tattoo.
The four shops working together on the same canvas
will be judged as a team, so you must work together.
- Ah, crap.
It's so hard to match two people's styles
on your own team, let alone three other people
that are not on your team.
- Your teams and canvases will be randomly assigned.
- Basically, these canvases are gonna pick
four skulls, four shops. Whichever four shops they get,
those four shops work together.
One artist from each shop is gonna tattoo
one Horseman, two Horsemen, three Horsemen, four Horsemen.
And they need to be a cohesive piece.
- Once your team is picked,
you are now trying to out-do the other team.
- Hell, yeah. - One team will win.
One team will lose.
The losing team is [bleep]. - [exhales]
- Let's meet your canvases.
♪ ♪
Okay, canvases. Please each choose four skulls.
The names on the bottom of your skulls
will determine your artists.
- Best case scenario, I hope we get us,
Allegory, Artistic Skin, and Old Town.
If it doesn't fall that way,
this is going to be crazy.
♪ ♪
- Empire State Tattoo.
Unkindness Art.
Allegory Arts.
♪ ♪
Black Cobra Tattoo.
- Black Cobra, I guess we're gonna have
to make a treaty and sleep with the enemy.
- It just got hot in here.
- Old Town Ink.
Artistic Skin Design.
Basilica Tattoo.
Golden Skull Tattoo.
- I can guarantee that being on a team
with Basilica Tattoo and Golden Skull Tattoo,
that we are not going to have our voices heard.
It's frustrating already, and we haven't even started yet.
- Those are the teams, and this week,
we will have no jury of peers.
You will have six hours
to tattoo Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Good luck.
- I'm April. - Nice to meet you. Bobby.
- This is a crazy twist.
You take people who have been fighting against each other,
and then for this challenge, they have to work together.
- You don't want to tattoo?
- I'm definitely letting him tattoo this one.
- So is it Aaron or is it Cleen? - I'm tattooing.
- I'll do Conquest. - Don't laugh, asshole.
- Everything about this challenge
is about adaptability,
and how these artists work together,
how they design together, how they tattoo as a team.
- I feel like it is a more masculine subject matter.
Do you feel comfortable with that?
- Yeah. - Eva, are you tattooing?
- Ulyss is gonna do it.
- Are you doing the tattooing, Tommy?
- Yeah, I'm gonna do the tattoo. - I love tattooing this--
like getting to illustrate this [bleep].
It is a smart play to let Erin tattoo.
She's more experienced and can do things faster.
-We have to make sure our stuff looks cohesive.
We can't fail on that,
because then we just fail the challenge.
Some people should take the reins on drawing certain things.
- So there's a little bit of everybody,
and it's consistent. - I can draw all the horses.
- And then I can draw all the clothes and reapers.
♪ ♪
- Black and grey or color?
- What if we did, like, a mixture?
Black and grey with colored backgrounds?
Color with black--you know. - Green mist and flames.
- I think just straight color or straight black and gray,
and I would rather do color than black and gray.
- What if we did the foreground color,
background black and grey?
- I just think color would be nicer.
- Nicer, or are you as capable of doing it?
- Basilica, Golden Skull, and Old Town
have huge egos.
- I think we can all, like, just separate
and start looking for our own references
and start sketching things out. - Seems just to be complete,
absolute anarchy.
- Who's tattoo-- are you tattooing or no?
- I don't know, man.
I think we ought to also think that if it goes south,
I don't know if we put all our strong players out first,
'cause they-- - That's true.
- Some of the teams have some weak players,
and they're gonna have them sit on the sidelines,
but I've been in this competition before,
and when there's no flash challenge,
there's always a curveball instead.
- Whoever doesn't tattoo today
is going to tattoo head-to-head.
That's why Noelin's tattooing and Christian's not.
If we as a team lose,
there's no way you'd lose the second one.
- But we don't even know if there is a second--
like, that's made up. - There is.
That's why he said the teams are [bleep].
- You tattooing? - Mm-hmm.
- Yeah? - It's you and me, man,
we're going Famine for Famine. - No, yeah,
I'm just thinking of what's after this.
- What do you mean? - You want the stronger first,
or the stronger second?
- There's only one person tattooing.
- 'Till [bleep] happens
and the last people have to battle it out.
♪ ♪
- [bleep] it.
- Okay, artists, you have six hours
to tattoo the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Remember, you'll be judged as a team.
Your time starts now.
- All right, let's do it.
- These artists need to show adaptability
by four of them tattooing one canvas
at the same time.
- I think we're good. - It's a little bit far apart.
- They have to be in constant communication.
- Do that [bleep] in black. - You want to do it black?
I want everyone's opinion on that.
- You're trying to pull a line,
and your partner's pulling a line,
and you guys are pulling opposite,
anything could go wrong.
- All right.
Let's see how he likes it two at a time.
- You almost ready, kid? - Yeah.
- Can we start getting him up? Ulyss has his stencil ready.
I'm super happy to be on the team with these guys,
because they are awesome artists.
So what are you saying, like this?
- Perfect.
- Because all the pieces are supposed
to look like the same artist did them,
I imagine their egos on that other team
is gonna get in the way.
♪ ♪
- Fade this down, heavy black.
- Well, they just told me not to put any black in it.
- No, you're gonna have a black cloak.
- I definitely don't feel like I'm part of a team today.
- It's a Grim Reaper, man.
- Yeah, but it's not, though, 'cause if it was,
I would just be [bleep] coloring it in black.
-Yeah, I mean, it pretty much is, ain't it?
- I have six people coming over to me every couple minutes
and making sure that I'm tattooing
the way they want me to. It's just chaos.
- So you're just gonna shade the horse underneath the cloak,
like it's--like it's a ghost?
- You guys are all saying different things.
I'm getting really confused. - We're saying the same thing.
- Three hours, guys.
♪ ♪
- What color is the cloak? - Like a shadow from the cloak.
- Okay, so you're gonna do what, baby blues or grays?
- Well, I got a black horse,
but my whole outfit and the dude is like a greenish-grayish.
- DJ's color palette is just so bland,
Noelin's horse just seems like it's got broken legs,
and then April is so cute and little,
she's trying to do a cute little pony tattoo.
I'm definitely gonna go at my own quality standard
and let these guys screw themselves.
♪ ♪
- So how's he looking? - You know what?
Erin does this cool thing I like.
Just color that all in, like, the midtone,
just right off that rain right there.
- Mm-hmm, gotcha. - Yeah, yeah, that's good.
- Are you giving away all my tricks?
- [laughs] Right now, the only issue
that this team is having is Erin can tattoo
better than everyone else in this room combined.
- Glad to see you guys are carrying Erin through this.
- One day I'll learn what I'm doing.
- Yeah, just try and keep up, girl.
Just try and keep up. Part of adaptability is that
the strongest player is gonna have to reel it in
a little bit so that their pieces can match.
Erin has taken so much of a lead on this
that the other competitors on that team
aren't gonna be able to keep up.
- Final hour, kids. One more hour.
♪ ♪
- I like these two together. - Yeah, I do too.
They play well off each other.
I feel pretty confident in our team.
Each one looks a little bit different,
but I think that's character.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren't quadruplets.
They should all look different.
These things are metal as [bleep].
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
That's it, machines down.
Time is up. No more ink.
- Oh my God, you made it. - That's great, that's great.
- Dude, that was awesome. - Nice work.
- It literally looks like the same tattooer
did all of these tattoos.
- I really never thought I'd have tattoos like this.
Seriously. - Cool.
- I don't know if the other team thinks
that outshining other people on their team is the way to win,
but it's definitely not.
They may have made good tattoos,
but they didn't meet the challenge.
- I'm in awe, guys. Like, I--
I don't even know what to say. - So high five for the team.
- Hell, yeah. - Yeah.
- Thank you. - We won, hands down.
both: Awesome.
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