The first season of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master debuted on Spike on January 17 and concluded on March 6, 2012, with a total of 8 episodes. The show is hosted and judged by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, with accomplished tattoo artists Chris Núñez and Oliver Peck serving as series regular judges. The winner received a $100,000 prize, a feature in Inked Magazine and the title of Ink Master.
The winner of the first season of Ink Master was Shane O'Neill, with Tommy Helm being the runner-up.
Contestants
Names, ages, and cities stated are at time of filming.
The contestant was eliminated from the competition.
Episodes
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Original release date
US viewers (millions)
1
1
"Fresh Meat"
January 17, 2012 (2012-01-17)
1.4
Skill of the Week: Raw Talent
Flash Challenge: The artists must go inside a smelly slaughterhouse where they have 90 minutes to tattoo a skull in the style of their choice on a pig carcass.
Winner: Josh Woods
Elimination Tattoo: The artists must cover up their canvases' tattoo they regret getting. Jeremy's canvas has difficulty sitting through Jeremy's cover-up tattoo, which results in her walking out, leaving Jeremy's tattoo unfinished. Jeremy is up for elimination, but B-TAT ends up getting eliminated for producing a sloppy and amateurish tattoo.
Best Tattoo of the Day winner: Tommy Helm
Bottom 2: B-TAT and Jeremy Miller
Eliminated: B-TAT
2
2
"Botched Head Tattoo"
January 24, 2012 (2012-01-24)
0.8
Skill of the Week: Lines
Flash Challenge: The artists must show their line work on a car. The cars are numbered from 1-9, so each artist must pick a key that contains a number, and that becomes their assigned car to work on.
Guest Judge: Ton Jones
Winner: Bili Vegas
Elimination Tattoo: The artists must tattoo a tribal design. Problems occur during the elimination tattoo. Due to his canvas' condition with psoriasis, Shane ends up tattooing Flash Challenge guest judge Ton, as it's the only option for him to make a finished tattoo. Bili struggles tattooing his canvases whose blood pressure started to go down while getting his head tattoo. Therefore, he was unable to finish it. Al and Léa both produce bad tattoos, but Jeremy is sent home.
Best Tattoo of the Day: James Vaughn
Bottom 3: Al Fliction, Léa Vendetta and Jeremy Miller
Eliminated: Jeremy Miller
3
3
"Pasties and a Camel Toe"
January 31, 2012 (2012-01-31)
0.6
Skill of the Week: Shading
Flash Challenge: The artists must body-paint a 3-D design on their model.
Winner: Al Fliction
Elimination Tattoo: The artists must design a black and grey tattoo on their canvas. Bili and Josh produce less-than desirable tattoos, however Al is ultimately eliminated.
Best Tattoo of the Day: Shane O'Neill
Bottom 3: Al Fliction, Bili Vegas and Josh Woods
Eliminated: Al Fliction
4
4
"Ink Disaster Piece"
February 7, 2012 (2012-02-07)
1.0
Skill of the Week: Technical Precision
Guest Judge: Todd Weinberger
Flash Challenge: The artists must carefully placed a bevel star on the client's choice spot in either the knee or elbow.
Winner: Josh Woods
Elimination Tattoo: The artist must tattoo a photo realism tattoo on their canvas. In the end, a tearful Heather is eliminated.
Flash Challenge: The artists meet Dave at a church that serves as inspiration behind their next challenge. They each have 45 minutes to tattoo prayer hands on their canvas.
Winner: Tommy Helm
Elimination Tattoo: The artists must tattoo a pin-up tattoo that shows proportion. Léa is ultimately eliminated.
Best Tattoo of the Day: Shane O'Neill
Bottom 3: James Vaughn, Léa Vendetta and Tommy Helm
Flash Challenge: The artists must spray paint a graffiti design on a bare wall.
Winner: Shane O'Neill
Elimination Tattoo: Portrait tattoos highlight the elimination tattoo, but some artists feel uncomfortable with the subject because they also needed to include lettering in their portrait while capturing the likeness. Josh is eliminated just before the finals.
Final Elimination Tattoo: The judges pick a random design for each artist that is based on their portfolio and their work on the show. Peck assigns James with the Japanese calf sleeve, Navarro gives Tommy the dark and heavy tattoo, and Núñez picks another Japanese tattoo for Shane, but bigger. The artists have 12 hours to tattoo their tattoo. However, that is not the only part of the elimination tattoo as they also have to create a 6-hour tattoo in the style of their choice.
