Jay was a dumbass who had delusions of grandeur. No way was he better than anyone left and he was probably not as good as a few people who left before him. I can't see Melissa getting to the finale, but I can see her getting invited to return for the next competition.

No big surprise who went home this week. Scott is acting like a real ass but of the guys left, I would completely trust him giving me my first tattoo.

I haven't really been blown away by any of the tattoos done by the top guys this season. They do great work, I just haven't been blown away. Over the past few seasons, there have been at least 2-3 awesome awesome (not just good/great) tattoos per season.

I think there have been a few really nice pieces on the show (actually having a hard time actually thinking of any examples off hand.....i guess the Prof. X and Rogue Tattoos in the X-men challenge come to mind). The top 4 this season have been better artists i would say than almost anyone from previous seasons, winners included. Possibly Shane O'Neil the winner of the first season was as good, but the other winners did not impress me that much.

So down to the final three. I had a feeling that Halo would be gone. He has had a few rough tattoos on occasion, but i get the feeling he might very well be back for the next season. He deserves another shot. My money is still on Scott winning this thing. Sausage is very talented but he is capable of making small errors. Matti started off not being that impressive but seems to have gone from strength to strength. It will come down to a face off between Sausage and Scott. Scott has been just too on top of his game throughout at this point. Unless he seriously screws up the final tattoo (and/or the 6 hour tattoo that they will of course have surprised upon them) its his to lose.

It is funny to see though that Scott really did a bad job last week of the tattoo of the snake. It was a weird design. The butterflies this week as well did not impress me all that much. I guess its a case of quality over quantity.

Looking forward to the finale next week. This has easily been the best season so far of the show and already looking forward to season 5.

I think overall Scott is the better artist, but I also think Sausage's upside is higher than Scott's. I guess I think Sausage has more potential than Scott. So if both of them bring their A game, I think Sausage could win. These are definitely the best artists they've ever had on the show.

Spot on assessment.

I know there was def a talent level difference but I thought it was really bs that this show allowed Scott help out matti on the faceoff challenge of the leopard? with the girl. And also was not sure why when Scott was in trouble with the snake the judges claimed he has been rock solid throughout the season....my point is that is what the individual challenges are for, to pick off an artist who fails that week.
Otherwise I love the show. To me it's between Scott and sausage, either can take it.

I think they've made it pretty clear that when they start getting to the end, they have to start considering a player's body of work. That only makes sense. In what reality would Melissa be better than Scott?

Yeah i think the further into this show it gets the more you have got to take all of the previous work into consideration. It would be very unfair for someone who has done great work from the start and has one hiccup to be kicked off because one artist who has done average or poorly consistently manages to pull a fluke good tattoo out of the bag.

I was not surprised to see the winner last night. He has been consistently the best in my opinion, although i do have to say that out of the three end tattoos i thought Mattis was the stand out. Kind of disappointed with Sausages. I thought he would have made it more colorful and i did not believe the excuse he gave. Seemed there were a lot of Matti fans in the audience who booed Scott every chance they had. I still don't get why people hold a grudge against him simply playing the game. Sure he was cocky a lot of the time, but i would not say his tactics had no integrity. Its a competition, he won flash challenges and that allowed him the chance to hand out the jobs. Why would he give himself something tough and make it easier for the others? People are stupid for thinking he played the game badly. He played it very well and the show could do with a few more like him in the future to keep it really interesting.

I had to chuckle when Gentle Jay (Stupid friggin name) was saying how people were scared of him and how he should have been the winner. The guy did not do a single good tattoo the whole competition. Shame Scott didnt beat his face to a pulp.

Also not sure how this rivals thing will play out next season. I was not a fan of the two they are bringing back previously, especially the little fat pork pie hat wearing douche. I kinda felt the second chance for a contestant had played itself out nicely this time and was looking forward to a totally fresh batch in September. Well see how it turns out i guess, but i will be tuning in for sure. Great season overall and best so far.

I do like that Josh Hibbard is returning. I liked him on his season, and thought he was unfairly ganged up on by the other contestants. For, you guessed it, "playing the game". But I do think he did some good work, and I would like to see how he has improved.

I didn't think he and the pork pie hat guys had a rivalry, everyone hated josh

This is the think that perplexes me. Sausage insisted that Scott did not respect him. If that was the case, Scott would not have bothered giving him the hardest canvases. The fact is Scott respected Sausage immensely and realized that he was his No. 1 competition. Why in god's earth would he ever give him the opportunity to outperform him? That's just stupid.

And it's good to see that Gentle Jay is still on drugs. People in the audience laughed when he said he would have won the entire thing if they hadn't helped Melissa. The guy is an ass clown.

It's too bad they chose two really unlikable douche bags to bring back for next season...

as for last night, I liked Matti's the best, although I do see how Scott won.

See I wasn't turned off by Scott's arrogance this season because the guy was easily the best artist this season. But that wasn't the case with Josh and his arrogance came across like dumbassary.

Oh scott was way better than Josh, no question. But Scott started out as arrogant.

Josh became a douche after he was ganged up on. It's like he said "hey, they want me to be a villain, i'll be a villain" and then embraced it. (at least in the editing - he very well could have been a douche to them from the start)

The best part of last night's show? How the girls were wearing completely unnecessary thongs. SWEET!

I was hoping Halo would come back as the fan favorite but the upcoming Rivals theme nixed any chance for that... at least for next season.

Josh had some talent, but there were some really bad jobs he did on occasion and on others he did very minimal tattoos that the judges seemed to love but i felt were pretty poor. I can see the guy has talent for seeing references and copying and stitching together, but i don't feel he had much imagination and skills in self creation. He has talent, but not originality.

I don't understand the rivalry thing either with those two? Tatu Baby had more of a rivalry with Josh, but i guess it would really appear like favoritism if they brought her back for a third time. She was someone that could do really great pieces and then on other occasions make a complete mess. I think it was only the bias of the judges that got her through to the final the second time round.

Its a good point made that Scott showed respect by giving Sausage the hard canvases. Even at the end when their were only three Scott said something along the lines of "I've been hard on you but playing the game man" to Sausage. In the end i think Sausage is a great artist and i would feel very safe him giving me a tattoo, however he was whining a lot and it always pissed me off that whenever the guest judge was announced he would basically cum in his pants. He was the biggest fan of everyone and everything. Totally douchey and trying to play the nice guy to the hilt.

Totally agree - Sausage was way more douchey through his whining than scott was through his arrogance.

Totally agree with the above.
It took Sausage a half a second to start whining how Scott picked on him. You would think after a few weeks or months he would realize that Scott played the game exactly how it was meant to be played....that is the entire purpose of handing out the skulls ( opponents names on them) , to help get rid of your competition.
Right after Sausage started his crying ( scott was mean to me) I told my wife that I changed my mind and hoped that Scott wins...

Hi All. The new season starts September 2nd. From watching the clips, looks like more drama between the contestants. Fuck the producers for cranking up the drama. I watch this show for the tattoos....NOT for that other crap. That said, I'll be tuning in.

Anyone watch the new A&E Epic Ink ?
The artists are really good at realism.

Is that the show with all the cool comic/movie nerds? If so, I really like it.

Yep. They do really good work. I like the subject matter they deal with. Looks like a cool environment to work in.

I think the new season starts this week. I am not sure if its all past contestants or some new ones thrown in as well. I am really not interested in seeing the old people. Most of whom they seem to be bringing back were talentless jerks, and the feuds seem to be utter rubbish and an excuse to bring them back. Still, will tune in and check it out and hope its better than i anticipate.

just 2 past contestants (josh hibbard and pork pie hat dude). All other people are new, but they are "pairs" that have an existing rivalry for some reason. Former apprentice, artist stealing customers, etc.