'Ink Master: Turf War': Jason and Raul get eliminated after failing to impress judges with griffin tattoos
'Ink Master: Turf War' was fast-paced this week. Host Dave Navarro pushed artists straight into the elimination tattoo round, which was quite the bloodbath because all 10 contestants were pitted against one another and for the first time teams didn't matter. An artist had to face off against another individually.
The competition was stiff and almost looked like it would be a neck-to-neck between most. However, the result was shocking. Could it be because the tattoos were judged blind?
Jimmy Snaz was confident he would beat Hiram Casas in American traditional but he ended up getting bottom-ranked with Jason Elliot, Raul Ugarte, Jerrel Larkins and Frank Ready.
For the ultimate elimination round, safe contestants got to play a part in assigning style and subject to the ones who ran the risk of elimination. And they came up with a griffin in black and grey. A griffin is a mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and body, tail and hind legs of a lion.
To begin with, most didn't know what a griffin was and just to conjure an image of the mythical creature to get a start somewhere was difficult enough. Unfortunately, Jason and Elliott were shown the exit door while others survived another day for another challenge.
Although talented, Jason has always been an overconfident contestant and his way of interacting with fellow artists has been snarky and rude. Despite his skills and talent, Jason was one of the least favorite artists both on and off the show.
His journey on the show had taken an interesting turn when Dave vouched for him and saved him from elimination. It was proof enough that Jason was in for the long haul. But tonight's debacle couldn't have been prevented because the artists he was competing with were simply too good.
Even though the eliminated contestants were lagging behind, Jerrel truly had a tough day. First off, his canvass refused to be inked, citing knee pain as a primary reason.
This left Jerrel with an unfinished biomechanical tattoo that thrust him into the final elimination round. Quite a change of scene from creating one of the top tattoos last week to being at the bottom. But, Jerrel pulled this one through.
Catch all the new episodes of 'Ink Master: Turf War' on Paramount every Tuesday.