Sausage. Likable guy, but what's with the retarded name?

I'm rooting for him to win. Not sure where the name comes from.....perhaps he's the John Holmes of tattoo artists?

^That could be it.

Wow - Sarah Miller gone after 2 episodes! Did not see that coming. She just CANNOT handle pressure. Both her tattoos were black as hell.

Thought Sausage's JFK was the best of the bunch. That was amazing. Christian's Hillary looked a little squished (but could have just been the body positioning)

I also didn't get the raving about Jesse's Obama. I mean, it was fine, he's obviously progressed there (and kudos to him for choosing that as the challenge). But definitely not in the top.

That Clinton tattoo was terrible.
Agreed on the JFK, miles ahead. so so good.

I thought all the portraits were of a very high quality. I agree with their top-3 and bottom-3, but I would have probably chosen the George Washington as the least good of the bunch, because it deviated the most from the source image. The Reagan was good apart from the excess detail (too many creases) and slight mouth imperfection, and the Clinton looked exactly like him except for all the unnecessary darkness. I guess it's true what they say about Clinton having been the first black president.

So Matti got the boot. Not surprised really. He is good, but not the best out of who is left. I am hoping Christian gets the boot as that guy is an arsehole. James Vaughn is actually doing better work than i have seen before, so more than happy to see him win. If not then i guess Cleen deserves it. How Jason Clay Dunn won that season over him is beyond me. That guy can't tattoo worth shit and his final piece was massively underwhelming.

I figure it'll be Vaughn vs. Cleen in the final.. I'm good either way, though Vaughn sometimes comes off as a cartoon character.

So Anthony won. I think he was the best artist out of the final three. His sleeve was incredible. Thats one of the first tattoos that i have ever seen that i would actually feel comfortable having on my body. His chest piece was good as well, but those Japanese dragon tattoos never leave much of an impression on me. Christians chest piece was pretty great, and even though the guy is a tool i think he should have come second. Cleen did piss poor jobs on both chest and sleeve. He got a pass to the final two i think because he is a veteran of 20 years in the biz and he had gotten to the final two once before. At times he can do an amazing piece of artwork, but just as many times his work can be really really bad. He should not have been in the final three, and both Matti and Sausage are better artists.

I like the look of the team aspect for the next season. The show started to feel a little tired a couple of seasons back, but it seems they are making good decisions to keep it interesting. Will be watching the next season for sure.

Its hard to do a wow piece in American Traditional style. So Christian was behind the 8ball from the get go. But I agree he deserved 2nd place over Cleen. Who was lucky to be in the finale at all. Anthony really came on in the last 3 or 4 weeks. He was always a strong artist but he really came on strong at the end of the competition when it was most important. Hard to believe he has only been tattooing for 5 years.

I have no problems with Anthony winning, but if I was getting a tattoo Cleen would be my #1 choice by a long way.

I love the series but never watch the finale. I just fast forward through it to the end to see who wins. I watched the whole thing once and found it just too dragged out.

Agree, but i WAS wowed by Christian's tattoo. I thought it looked awesome. The artists kept mentioning blowouts on his tattoo, wish they had shown some closeups so we could see how it looked.

I do agree that Anthony had the best looking final tattoos and have no problem with him winning. But Dave was right... that wasn't a sleeve to me - that was just an Arm tattoo.

Anthony overall was fantastic throughout the season.

I didn't like christian at all, but his chest piece was incredible especially from a distance, anthony's until you knew it was a dragon and where to look for the head was less clear, and it was unfinished.

I did like cleen's chest piece, and I love how vivid the colors are in his sleeve.
I'm a big fan of pieces with color.


My chest piece for reference

https://instagram.com/p/10i9plRbEU/

Not super clear to see what it is from far away, but Henry got what I wanted out of it.

I agree that the sleeve from Anthony was not technically a sleeve, but it was so crisp and flawless, plus the image was just killer. Cleens was all color, but it just looked like a whole lot of mess to me. He does Nu Skool but i am not a huge fan. Jesse does better Nu Skool, but his image designs are so frigging out there that it can take away from the quality of the artwork itself.

Anthony really did some great work in the last few weeks and he deserved the win.

There have been a few pieces by Cleen that i am positive i could have drawn better. The wolf piece that he did against Christian is a prime example. Just the initial drawing was so bad. When its done as bad as that there is simply no way on earth that you can make a winning tattoo.

The wolf was James Vaughn, i thought... Unless you mean another wolf - but yeah, James' wolf drawing was super horrible.

Anthony was my favorite, and was happy he won over Cleen, but was just speaking to the technicalities.

You are indeed correct. Yeah, Vaughn is talented but that Wolf was horrible. Christians looked pretty frickin great.

Cant now recall what Cleen had to do in that challenge, but i remember being underwhelmed.

Last few episodes and the final, had shitty tattoos and awful judging.

Cover up episode- kick Mattie off because his wasn't done while it did cover up. Christian stays with an awful design that didn't cover up the whole thing and what he did cover up, you could see through it. Very shitty judging.

Winner of the whole thing doesn't finish first tattoo, and doesn't do what he was suppose to do for the second.

The judges really have to stay on the same line from episode 1 to the end. It's one way one week, then the next it's completely opposite of the shit they said they week before.

What I would really like to see, is judges set the challenge, then walk out. The judges don't get to walk around while the tattooing is done, they don't see skull pick/ and canvases. They only see final tattoo without knowing who did it so they can judge fair.

Same goes with the final. Judges or fan votes- show tattoos on screen or have canvas walk out and show have judges talk about it so the fans voting can see the mistakes more, and understand whats hard or easy to do. Do fan vote during commercial break or two, close it then have artist come out to talk about it then show video of it being done. It really became a popularity contest this year. Cleen was getting booed before his work was being shown( Same with Mattie v Sausage, everyone knew that little crybaby was going to win). And also, for any of that to work the episode before the final, they don't show them working on the final tattoos or show the canvases.

Agree that i'd love to see blind reviews of the tattoos - would take out any preconceived idea of the artist, or the idea that an artist has done strong work before so should stay in... of course the judges would be able to figure out who it was, more than likely, but would be better.

I enjoyed this season and next looks to be good, too, but I absolutely hate the idea of allowing America to vote. I would have chosen Cleen or Christian's chest piece over Anthony's, simply because that dragon was unfinished and it didn't look appealing.

I'm ok with Anthony winning for his sleeve but it wasn't exactly a sleeve. Which means he didn't exactly do the challenge. But his art is undeniably strong.

Christian is a major tool - those face tattoos are beyond retarded - but the guy does good work and he speaks directly. I respect him for that.

And please STOP doing the finale live. After all these seasons hasn't anyone figured out the judges suck at live TV?

Criminal that Christian wasn't in the top 2. This is about the best tattooes ,not a popularity contest

Antony is obviously more fan friendly than Christian and Christian manipulated the other contestants more than anyone else so he really was behind the eightball in getting a fan vote or the other contestants vote

Christian will definitely come back in a future season

This was probably the best season just by way of how many talented artists it had.

I like the idea of Team Peck n Nunez for next season, but can't see how they can do that without having more judges in the mix

I think they should leave the format just the way it is. No formal teams or gimmicks.

No talk on the new season and i am not surprised. Its a house full of losers pretty much. The women on the show this season are making it hard to keep watching. A couple of artists have some skills, but no single artist is standing out above the rest of the pack as is usually the case. I get the feeling this season will have a winner that will be as bad as Jason Clay Dunn (who without a doubt should NEVER, EVER have come even close to winning this show. My 11 year old step daughter is a better artist and thats the truth). Its also been pissing me off that the judges seem to be swaying towards helping the girls and i think they are pushing for a female winner this time for sure.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me about this show is how people start bitching and moaning about choices not being fair and people giving them bad skull picks. Scott Marshall had the right idea and said it like it is....the is only one winner. Its every man for himself from the start. Its usually the weakest artists that cause the most noise.

There's an interesting piece on "IM" over at "Reality Blurred". It mentions that sometimes Peck and Nunez are a little too relaxed and jokey and scenes have to be re-shot to be more harsh. Also, most of the challenges are contributed by the network. Spike sees the show as appealing to women (as opposed to some of their other shows), which might explain the direction this season has been taking.