If you're a fan of reality game shows, you may have seen Ink Master. Just substitute tattoos for
food, fashion, or whatever, and you've got this show. As with most "unscripted" competitions,
however, the reality isn't always what the producers make it appear to be.
Here are some things you may not know about Ink Master.
It wouldn't be an unscripted competition show without at least one contestant finishing his
or her project in the final few seconds of every challenge. American TV audiences
are addicted to the thrill of wondering if the person will be able to finish the task in time,
then seeing them pull it off by the time the judge says "Time's up!"
As one former human canvas revealed to the Reddit world back in 2016, however,
that was never, ever the case. He wrote,
"No one ever came down [to] the wire. Most artists finished hours before and some even went over 6."
And that's not the only thing that makes Ink Master fake. The former
human canvas said that all the drama and hostility that the viewer sees on screen
never existed in real life. He said that there's no tension on set,
but that the artists know that the more drama they incite, the more screen time they'll get.
This results in artists who are super nice and friendly in person turning into total jerks when
the cameras start rolling. He also said that the judges were hardly ever on the set, adding,
"They only showed up for 5 minutes to walk around from
booth to booth so they could edit them being there the whole time."
Part of the schtick of Ink Master is that the human canvases get what they get.
Then they have to deal with the judges picking apart and pointing out all the terrible features
of a tattoo they'll have for the rest of their lives. But hey, it's a free tat, right?
"I wanted to pull my hair out."
Still, having saved a few hundred bucks on your permanent disfigurement
isn't much of a consolation when the artist really bungles the tattoo.
"It was blotchy, color was gone, it was just garbage."
Screen Rant ranked the show's worst tattoos — and was there some awful ink among them.
One of the absolute worst was the artist who misspelled the Bible verse his canvas wanted.
Luckily, for victims of such terrible tats, the producers thought up the spin-off Ink Master:
Redemption, which invites the human canvases back to the set
for another round of inking in hopes of fixing the unsightly fiascoes.
"Do you really think this is a good tattoo?... yeah."
As if those frightful tattoos weren't bad enough,
Ink Master has sure seen its fair share of controversial moments in its 200-plus episodes,
a list of which Screen Rant was more than happy to compile, as well. One of those came in season
three, when producers thought it would be a great idea to send the artists into a prison
to have them do up some traditional single needle prison tats on real-life convicts.
Ink Master has also been criticized for its treatment of women. It took the show eight
seasons to see a female champion, Ryan Ashley. The show is apparently not a safe space for them,
either. One former employee reportedly experienced sexual harassment on the set
and ended up suing the producers after she was fired for filing a complaint about it.
Then there was that episode in season four where all the human canvases appeared without
any clothes on, which made some of the competitors understandably uncomfortable.
"Oh my god what the hell are we doing?"
In January of 2020, TMZ reported that Oliver Peck was leaving the show after pictures of him in
blackface — on more than one occasion – were found on his Myspace page. In one photo, he can be seen
sporting an afro wig, a blacked-out tooth, and a superhero-style outfit with a giant letter "N" on
his chest. In another, he's wearing a basketball uniform, head and wrist bands, and covered
literally from head to toe in black make-up. Paramount Network released a statement saying,
"We, like many others, were appalled when we saw the photos of Oliver.
We were glad to see his apology and accept that
he is taking full responsibility for the damaging impact of his actions."
Part of that responsibility was being told to take a hike by the show he'd worked on for
nearly a decade, but "apology" might not be the right word for the statement provided by Peck.
According to USA Today, he said,
"The producers and I have decided it's best to part ways.
The offensive photos of me which recently surface from many years ago can only be a
distraction to the amazing show I have loved being a part of and its many talented artists."
He didn't exactly sound sorry for wearing that makeup and putting that giant "N" on
his chest. Rather, he sounded more sorry for himself for losing his cool job.
Peck's racist idiocy was part of the reason Ink Master was cancelled in 2020.
According to Variety, the show's demise also had to do with Paramount Network's
shift in programming strategy. That year, it decided to shift its focus from repetitive,
formulaic reality competition shows to more original movies, miniseries, and scripted dramas.
But it was also part of the network cleaning up its act in general.
It also cancelled the reality series Cops after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a
former Minneapolis police officer sparked racial justice protests across the country in June.
Fans of Ink Master saw a glimmer of hope in February 2021, however,
when Deadline reported that the network is planning on reviving the show
on its new streaming service Paramount Plus. So never fear, there are more bad tattoos
and fake arguments — and, we all hope, fewer racists — to come in the future.
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