And Season 12’s Ink Master Is…

This season of Ink Master was a wild ride, and last night the battle of the sexes came to an end. In the finale, Laura Marie, Dani and Creepy Jason presented their 35-hour master canvases to the judges and the clash of the coaches was settled once and for all. Take a look at what you missed from last night’s episode.

We began by taking a look at the finale coaches tattooing live for a chance to win $25,000. The coaches competing were Bubba Irwin, DJ Tambe, Jime Litwalk, Ryan Ashley Malarkey, Duffy Fortner, Megan Jean Morris and Nikki Simpson. They were assigned either black-and-grey, new school or surrealism tattoos, and their fellow coaches from their episode helped along the way.

We then went into the evaluation of the three finalists tattoos, starting off with Dani. Dani was assigned color biomechanical and at her home studio, she was shown tattooing using a car generator when the power was knocked out.

Next up was Creepy Jason, who executed a black-and-grey realism back piece. Jason opted for a sexy pirate and the judges complimented the many details he included in the piece.

Lastly, we were shown Laura’s tattoo, which was a color Japanese tattoo of the God of thunder and lightning from the Shinto religion.

After showing off the finalists master canvases, we learned which coach would be walking away with $25,000. The judges announced the winners starting from last place and ending on the winner, with Megan Jean claiming 7th place, Jime Litwalk claiming 6th, Duffy Fortner claiming 5th, Bubba Irwin claiming 4th and Nikki Simpson taking 3rd. DJ Tambe and Ryan Ashley were announced as the top two, however, it was Ryan who took home the prize.

After the clash of the coaches face off, the final three of season 12 were brought up and the judges narrowed down the finalists to the top two. The judges unanimously agreed that Jason’s back piece read as tonal and Peck argued that the design leaned more toward illustrative than realism. This meant that Dani and Laura were in the top two. Nunez argued that Laura’s execution of Japanese was spot on and he cast his vote for her. However, Navarro enjoyed Dani’s biomech tattoo and gave her his vote. And while Peck appreciated both artist’s tattoos, in the end he declared “bold will hold” and announced that Laura had won the season.

Something that you may have missed during the excitement over season 12’s Ink Master was the announcement of season 13, as well as, an extended sneak peek of Grudge Match. We learned that season 13 will be a Turf War, with artists split up based on regions: East Coast, West Coast, South and Midwest. Season 13 will air in 2020, while Grudge Match is coming to our TV screens on October 1st.

What did you think about this season’s finale? Who would you have crowned Ink Master? Which coach had your favorite tattoo? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments section.