hello everyone i hope you're having the greatest of days today welcome to the film insight channel
we've seen some really crazy artists throughout the show but none of them can top the one we've
listed out for you today from an impeccable design to a picture-perfect finish this guy clearly walks
away with the crown so who are we talking about we're going to reveal it in just a bit
before that let's take you over two more contestants who almost made it to this title
they're the closest contenders we found to be the best meanwhile before we get started why don't
you take a wild guess and share your thoughts on who you think will be featured as the most
talented Inkmaster on our list today with that done let's get started with christian buckingham
i started my strategy before i even got here i tend to specialize in black and gray realism so
i actually took all the color pieces out of my social media so that the guys would think i was
all just one trick christian buckingham was born in colorado despite being an air force
brat and a gypsy buckingham has a long history with tattooing he began his journey as an artist
when he was just a kid he would often doodle on his notebook after seeing bikers from sturgis
roll through town he thought they looked so cool and always felt attracted to the art
buckingham debuted in the seventh season of Inkmasters and allied with anthony michaels this
helped him take out many of the veteran artists in the beginning he watched all the contestants
and knew right away that michaels would be a solid competitor buckingham trusted him and thought that
he had a solid character for staying loyal to the end in a recent interview he mentioned that he
was inspired by survivor and other shows for his strategy anthony michaels was declared the winner
of season seven which sparked a lot of controversy buckingham said that the game did it for him in a
recent interview and not the tattoo he has since made peace with it he knew he had solid pieces
and would have liked to see how things went if he had made it to the finale but buckingham isn't a
sore loser and is happy that his pal michaels won season 7. buckingham mentions that it was pretty
stressful to be judged by tattoo legends oliver peck and chris nunes to stay in the competition
but as an artist he was already used to critiquing himself and developed a thick skin which helped he
felt like he did a good job and the criticism was insightful and helpful he mentioned that
being on the show has made him a better tattooer looking back at his time on the show he was known
to never argue with any critiques and owned up to his mistakes chris used to be one of those
armchair quarterbacks that always watched the show and thought it would be a breeze but now
looking back he admits it was extremely difficult but he is proud of how he did especially against
the talent featured in the seventh season many years back buckingham got hit by a drunk driver
which caused many dislocations and he had to go through three surgeries to fix things up after the
third one the workers comp told him they wouldn't cover any more procedures because it wouldn't be
stable ever again many of his friends told him to try tattooing but an apprenticeship was super
hard to get back then they offered to pay for his schooling but he had no idea what he'd do
he said i thought i'd try again and got lucky i got an internship at wildside tattoo in vegas
and here we are guess it was just fate tired of corporate tattoo shops buckingham and his partner
vic vivid opened a tattoo shop called basilica in las vegas the facial tattoos came after
he was already a tattooer he said i've always loved the dream all this stuff is just for fun
i don't care about money and things the way some people do i gauge my life by experiences some
of the best times i've ever had were when i was broken homeless that's why third place was okay
for me it was never about the money i just wanted to do something that very few people get to do
and i did it was amazing and life is good he's got facebook instagram and twitter accounts
so check out his latest posts to stay updated with what he's up to juan salgado and surfer your back
surfers the canvas suffers this is crazy juan salgado too started tattooing at a very young
age i was a little kid i was super shy the outlet i found to socialize was through art he recalled
during an interview with the weekly journal i took a pencil and started drawing and soon i could draw
better than any of them i couldn't look people in the eye before i've been through an evolution
salgado was into extreme sports and punk bands as a teenager the tattoos on the band members sparked
his interest in skin art he got his first tattoo at 17 on a whim by 20 he studied painting and
sculpture in college season 10 came in with the first twist of the show the eliminated artists had
some of the power this season they chose to name one of the two contestants to enter the final two
meanwhile the judges would have a say on the other one during the master canvas challenge
salgado was the best his tattoo was the most aesthetically pleasing to look at
while josh deserved a commendation for going so big it was tough to tell what was going on unless
you took a closer look they were more robust at least from our vantage point than rowley
the artist voted into the top two by the jury of peers was salgado this means that the judges had
to decide the second they chose josh this showdown was the most predicted outcome of the whole show
the decision was close between josh and salgado we think that the two artists were fantastic
and deserve being finalists it came down to who you liked the best and who had a better journey
throughout the season the judges decided that josh was the winner of the 10th season of Inkmaster
he was excellent in his field and was entertaining throughout most of the season he'd also been on a
tough road to get to this point so we have to give it to him just check out some of his work nobody
could have done it better than him the colors the vibrance the precision it couldn't get better
we finally arrived at the most exciting part of the video it's time to reveal the most talented
tattoo artist ever any guesses it has to be jimmy litwalk things i knew since day one in
the competition was that craig foster was going to be one of the people standing next to me in
the finale Inkmaster contestant jimmy litwalk dreamed of becoming a disney animator though his
childhood dream changed his artistry and passion for animation shone bright in his work as a tattoo
artist litwalk developed his talent as an airbrush artist while working next door to a tattoo parlor
he was fascinated with the culture after high school he took on a rigorous tattoo apprenticeship
it was two years before i even put needle to skin i needed to gain confidence before jumping
in and started doing tiny pieces to build that confidence he said when he moved to las vegas
that's when his career bloomed he worked at heart and huntington the tattoo company of kerry hart
motorcross racer and husband of singer pink while in vegas for six years litwalk appeared on various
reality programs tattooing celebrities including the real world nitro circus and the hills
the tattoo competition featured on the spike channel was something i kind of fell into he says
originally chosen as a guest judge litwalk captivated producers with his lively personality
and was asked to be a contestant he finished in second place in season three in 2013. filming
one episode takes three to four days and what people witness is 42 minutes of what happened
during those days it's like watching sound bites you'll hear yourself saying something
and know there was more to the story it was a cool experience but it's all about perspective
while on the show lit walk won four challenges and ultimately placed second in the finale of
season three fast forward to season seven and lipwalk returned to the competition as a veteran
litwalk was back as a guest coach for season 12 competing alongside kelly doty for a slot in the
coaches face-off at the live final you have to have fun not lose that passion or let the
negative energy overtake creativity it's better to focus on the positive parts to believe in yourself
rather than let the doubt sink in that was carried over from the last challenge
when asked what the difficult part of being a coach was he mentions you could see a lot of the
stress that goes on and i tried to remind them what got them there i wanted them to look deep
down inside and bring out their best potential i wanted to allow them to be the most creative
they could be and remind them that they were already chosen his artistic background and love
of animation are reflected in his expressive tattooing style categorized as new school
it encompasses cartoons illustrations exaggerated features and vivid color litwalk's examples range
from a green reindeer to a winged cupcake to a buxom female pirate on the rare day when he isn't
tattooing or working the convention circuit the father of two is home with his family keeping up
with his sketching litwalk has worked at ascension tattoo on mills avenue in orlando for over a year
in a shop with nine guys there are nine different personalities variety is the spice of life applies
to this studio we're a dysfunctional family but it works well he added i've tattooed my mom i've met
my wife through tattooing all my experiences and travels have stemmed from tattooing i've never had
a regular job where i had to punch a clock and i wouldn't change a thing he also worked at the
heart and huntingdon co tattoo studio in orlando so what do you think about our lineup for today do
you know of any other Inkmaster who would fit the title best let us know in the comments down below
that will be all for today's video here on the channel i do hope you enjoyed it and if you did be
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