Kudos to Ink Master

And for those of you who missed Ink Master last night on Spike TV, shame on you!  Oh, well, that's why  Hulu was invented.

What impressed me about last night's show was not the skill of the contestants (which, overall, was not terribly impressive).  No, what impressed me was the strong concern for the health and safety of the human canvases that were used.  One volunteer was dropped because of a flare of his psoriasis, which the judges felt (correctly) would increase the volunteer's pain and healing time, as well as possibly causing scarring that would deface his tattoo.  Another volunteer began having a bad reaction to having his skull tattooed, and the medics were on him in short order.

It's nice to see a show demonstrate such concern for the volunteers, especially since dropping the man with psoriasis meant that one of the judges themselves had to volunteer to go under the needle so that everyone could have a chance to compete.  Nope, I'm not telling you which judge added to his ink; you'll just have to see the show for yourself.

Regardless, big kudos to Ink Master.  Hopefully, the show will run for several seasons, as it can only generate more good buzz for tattoo culture in general, and rising tattoo artists in particular.

Plus, it's edumakational.  ;)

Above:  James Vaughn's Winning Tattoo for Ink Master's second week challenge:  Tribal.  For the other designs, check out the Ink Master's web site (link above).