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[T.R.]

Spike TV Brings Us Ink Master: A Tattoo Travesty
Source: SFWeekly
By Rae Alexandra
Feb. 6 2012

A friend of mine was recently getting some work done in one of San Francisco's most respected tattoo shops, Skull & Sword, when the conversation turned to new Spike TV reality competition show, Ink Master. In case you've missed this slice of Truly Awful Television, it is basically America's Next Model for tattoo artists. But instead of Tyra Banks standing around looking stern every week, we get the first tattooed guy the producers could think of (probably because he and his ex-wife Carmen Electra had a reality T.V. show of their own a few years back), Dave Navarro. Dave Navarro -- in case you're not familiar -- has played guitar in Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and, very importantly, has some of the dodgiest tattoos in living memory.

Alongside Navarro are fellow judges Oliver Peck (who used to be married to the most famous reality T.V. tattoo artist of them all -- Kat Von D) and Chris Nunez (one of the dudes from Miami Ink). They are all overly harsh in their criticisms and vaguely inconsistent with their treatment and judging of the ten artists who, by the way, are competing for $100,000 and a spread in a Inked Magazine.

Each week, the contestants are given a flash challenge (which has, thus far, included painting both cars and naked ladies), followed by the elimination challenge. Each week, the artists must do a different style. The second week was tribal, which was stunning to us because we didn't think anyone had gotten a tribal tattoo since the late nineties. Last week, they had to show "shading." At some point in the near future, they'll be doing pin-up girls.

Last week, the most arrogant and unpleasant contestant -- Al Fliction, an odious and loud bore of a man -- got eliminated. We breathed a sigh of relief that we didn't have to see or hear him ever again until it dawned on us that there is literally only one truly likeable contestant in the whole bunch. For the most part, they all seem like total bastards. Arrogant, self-obsessed bastards at that.

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