On Ink Master tonight, the artists put their canvases through excruciating pain as they tattoo the palms of their hands.
The tattoos are part of this week’s Flash Challenge on the Spike show, meant to test the contestants’ technical application skills.
Tattooing on the palm is one of the most painful areas as the hands are packed with nerve endings. It also requires special technique due to the type of skin and the shape of the palms.
Artist Ryan Ashley says: “Getting your palm tattooed is one of the most complicated, serious areas. It’s extremely painful, and it’s not like normal tattooing.”
So it’s bad news for the competitors when their “canvases” turn up — and want some seriously difficult designs, mostly in color, including:
- A traditional black and grey eyeball with a teardrop
- Coloured traditional sacred heart
- Coloured realistic tiger fish
- Coloured realistic betta fighting fish
- A new-school yeti in colour
- A neo-traditional planet earth
- A 3D crystal ball
So some serious reasoning with the canvases has to be done before the artists get to work.
The winner of the flash challenge gets the power to designate the candidates for the elimination challenge.
Ink Master clip Season 8 Episode 11 clip
Ink Master airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on Spike.