LA Ink: Episode 8
Kat’s 5 hours late which is completely unacceptable and unprofessional for any artist let alone supposed shop owner. Were she working for anyone else she would’ve been fired- again. She continues the show’s trend of only tattooing celebrities, presumably to keep the ratings up. After making the guitarist of My Chemical Bromance and his hired goon wait all that time she proceeds to give him the crappiest tattoo I’ve seen her puke out on tv. She puts the design on backwards and shades the face so dark the features are incomprehensible. True to her anti-sterile and unsanitary inclinations she runs around the shop touching everything with her gloved (supposedly clean) hands before finishing her tattoo. Apparently her cat is living at the shop (hello health department where are you?) because it’s shown chowing down in her office.
Hannah falls below her mark with a sugar skull and traditional Scottish piece. As usually the client’s faux-symbology of their tattoo is contradictory and only reinforces the idea of cultural appropriation in mainstream (i.e. flash art for the masses) tattoo culture. The client requests a cross be removed from the sugar skull design as she’s not religious, in spite of the sugar skull’s origins as part of Latin American, Christian holidays. Hannah makes the poor decision to square off the flowers at the top of the design, rather than round them to flow with the natural shape of the shoulder. For the second tattoo the design’s circular composition is asymmetrical and the letters don’t retain a consistent width. (Though to be fair as a designer I’m way harder on type than my girlfriend who tattoos.) All artists should take a few typography classes and at least learn basic principles about kerning and leading. With the availability of desktop publishing software, I don’t see how artists can still do bad lettering because you can lay the type out on-screen first.
Hannah’s second client is one of the biggest babies I’ve ever seen. The minute she walks in the shop she’s already talking about the pain factor of her tattoo, so naturally by the end she’s complaining she’s going to pass out. It’s irksome to see such displays broadcast because it gives people the notion it’s alright to carry on like a 3 year old. Tattoos hurt. They don’t feel good. But there’s a lot of things that hurt worse and most people have probably experienced them before getting a tattoo. If you’re worried about the pain you have no business getting a tattoo to begin with.
Kim does one of the best tattoos I’ve seen on television, and probably one of the best Buddha’s I’ve seen period. The line work is steady and impressive, with beautiful, subtle color. It took me a while to get into it since she has a softer style than I usually prefer, but she seems to be the most consistent and cleanest artist on the show. Corey continues his habit of noodling every tattoo to death, in spite of a propensity for blow outs from his shaky-handed tube-floating. He does a pieces parts Peruvian design that will deteriorate into a blob in two years time, and already looks like a blob from any further than a foot away.
The episode ends with Kat whining to her father about the woes of running a shop and managing employees. I’m not sure exactly what she has to complain about since she doesn’t really own the shop, and she has established artists who manage themselves with more dignity than she’ll ever muster. Not to mention they don’t keep their clients waiting for 5 hours.
honestly dude, if you dont like kat (and it seems you really dont like la ink that much), why do u watch the show? stop bitching about it and watch something else.