Ink Master, Season 3: Who the Hell Are These Guys?

Say what you want about "reality" tattoo competition shows, but they are relevant to tattoo blogs, regardless of how you feel. Personally, I find them fascinating on so many different levels.

The third season of Ink Master premiered this week and, while I won't run down the entire roster of this season's contestants, I do want to note that a couple of them have had their work showcased on Tattoosday previously.

The first person who jumped out at me was Craig Foster, from Skinwerks Tattoo & Design in Carrollton, Georgia.

Craig had two pieces appear on Tattoosday in 2008. This one:

Read about this tattoo here.

and this one:

Read about this tattoo here.

Many of the names are familiar, and we all remember Tatu Baby from season 2.

I featured one of her more recognizable pieces back in 2011:

Read about it here.

Something about one of the other contestants rang familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The artist with the moniker Made Rich had my ink-sense tingling and then, I realized, I interviewed one of his clients just a few weeks ago at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention.

Based out of the Queens shop Think Before You Ink, one of my favorite pieces of the night was this thigh tattoo on a woman named Taylor:

I haven't published this one yet, but I'll retroactively link it once it's done.

So I'll be tuning in this season just to see how these three artists fare, along with the others. The judges, Dave Navarro, Oliver Peck, and Chris Nunez, are hyper-critical in their assessments, which lends a certain degree of authenticity to the show's claim to find the best tattooer among the bunch to crown Ink Master.

Keep an eye on the three artists above, because I think they have a good chance of going deep into the competition.

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Ink Master, Season 2, Premieres Tonight on Spike TV

If you're new to Tattoosday, you may not know that I was a "human canvas" on the second episode of Ink Master's first season, which aired earlier this year in January.

My tattoo (and accompanying story) appeared here.

I know there's a lot of hand-wringing about "reality" tattoo shows, but my position is this: if there's a chance to see quality tattoo work on TV, I'll watch it, even putting up with the drama, real or not.

As we head into Season 2, check this trailer:

SPIKE
Season 2 Trailer
www.spike.com
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Like in the first season, there are some artist competing who I've never heard of. But there are also those whose work I have been fortunate enough to feature here on the site.

Most notable is Lalo Yunda of Sacred Tattoo. Lalo's work has appeared on Tattoosday the most, which makes sense since he is a New York-based artist. His work appeared most recently here and here.

There'a also Katherine "Tatu Baby" Flores, whose nickname has raised eyebrows among more serious tattoo enthusiasts. I do know know that when I featured one of her pieces late last year here, I was impressed.

Since last year's winner, Shane O'Neill, had also appeared on Tattoosday here and here, I'll go out on a limb and predict that Lalo Yunda will be this season's winner. Call it the Tattoosday blessing!

Be sure to check it out (or at least DVR it) and remember, if you're looking for the episode I was in, it was called "Botched Head Tattoo".

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Vickie's Pin-Up Has Blood Money

In what must have looked odd to passers-by, I interviewed Vickie in Penn Station the day after Halloween. I'm guessing that she and her friend had attended costume parties the night before. What interested me most was Vickie's ink. She "lost count" of how many tattoos she has, and she offered up this wonderful piece on her upper left arm:

This tattoo, whose name is "Trixie," was designed and inked by Tatu Baby, who works out of Chico's Marked 4 Life, in Miami.

She also wanted to point out that, in Trixie's right hand, she's holding blood money:

Thanks to Vickie for sharing Trixie with us here on Tattoosday!