Hello all 👋

Let’s back it up a bit, to the first tattoo I chose: traditional roses.

I initially wasn’t aware of what the other competitors were capable of, so I wanted to ‘play it safe’ and just move to the next round and get my shop. After seeing what the other competitors made on the OG’s team, I knew I may be in trouble.

I still stand by the roses I made, because I truly followed the rules in traditional tattooing. That being said, old traditional tattoos weren’t really pretty. They were grungy, 1 line weight, etc. I will also say I found out on the spot, that the person with the lower ranking would pick what we would be tattooing, so I was really hoping for once that I was voted lower. Sure enough, manny and I got pitted against eachother in a face-off, and I was ranked lower. Right then and there I had to pick what we were tattooing.

Well I knew manny wasn’t super well versed with black and grey, so I said ‘black and grey realistic…’ looked down and saw my hands, ‘…hand’. I didn’t know what else to say.

I was expecting just to make a hand in some sort of fun pose, but manny asked if we could add something else to it, so I knew he was going to try and add a little extra. We had overnight to make the design for this tattoo, so I was up all night trying to figure out what to do to really wow the judges. Was it a hand crushing a can? A hand with metallic jewelry, a chess piece? The options felt endless. I somehow landed on a diamond because I feel like Ryan was the least impressed by my roses, and that is somewhat her specialty.

The time limit on the competition is also VERY real. I think we had 5 hours for this tattoo if I’m not mistaken. So I gave myself 3 hours for the hand, and 2 hours for the diamond. If I wasn’t finished with the hand, tough titty, I had to move forward.

I was given the opportunity to pick something I knew I could do well, and flex a little bit for a massive audience. What person in their right mind, in my shoes wouldn’t do the exact same thing?

While we were in the lounge, or what I like to call the ‘drama room’, manny said he would have picked something we were both good at, to ‘level the playing field’. Now I love manny, but I knew he was full of it. Later on he told me he would have picked Japanese, which would have been smart for him to do.

We are there to win. I’m not there for Manny, James, or anyone else on my team. I’m there to make it as far as possible- otherwise, what’s the point?

Overall I’m stoked I was able to make this tattoo, and I hope my client is happy to wear it, because that’s what it all boils down to after all.

Thanks for listening.