Ink Master season 11 premiere review: Cleen Rock One vs Christian Buckingham

Ink Master, Ink Master season 11 review

Ink MasterThrough one episode,Ink Masterseason 11 (subtitledInk Master: Grudge Match: Cleen vs. Christian— too long a subtitle to frequently spell out) did an excellent job of setting up all the players. While it may have needed about fifteen minutes more to give every artist their proper due, it did the most that it could with the amount of time that the editors had.

The series' central twist this year is a close recreation to what we saw last year, with the only difference being that instead of three teams of six, there are now two teams of nine. Cleen Rock One and Christian Buckingham are the new mentors, there to guide the contestants through the process and/or fight with each other throughout the season. It is a completely unnecessary twist since the competition functions fine without it, but we understand the appeal of it as a means to ensure that you continue to get viewers of earlier seasons. Cleen and Christian are compelling rivals who have an on-screen history — something we did not see with Anthony Michaels, Steve Tefft, or DJ Tambe last year.

Related– Check out our exclusive interviews with Cleen Rock One and Christian Buckingham

Do we worry that the judges and the mentors will occupy so much space and that there is not enough real estate to develop as epic a rivalry with new artists this season? maybe a bit, but with one less mentor there should be more screen time for the new artists.

For the premiere, it is hard to generate too many big impressions on the field when there are 22 contestants to consider and this is almost akin to an audition round. The artists first had to complete a tattoo in either black-and-gray (Christian's signature style) or new-school (Cleen's style) in order to see if they could get in the top 14. If they succeeded, they had an opportunity to pick their own team.

For now, here are some of the major takeaways.

Angel– She is one of the younger contestants this season, but even still, she had the #1 spot and went with Cleen as her mentor.

Tony Medellin– There was something about his party shark tattoo that was immediately appealing to us — he was excellent onInk Master: Angelsand he is someone to really watch.

Teej Poole– AnotherAngelsalum and someone who believes that his tattoos already have a signature look.

On a larger scale, the second challenge (the face-off between pairs of two among the bottom eight) had more drama and we actually had some really memorable moments. Take, for example, one particular artist being told that their koi fish looked like a "d–k." Or, another artist in Stacy Smith managing to wing it just enough to make it to the next round.

Then, there is also Austin Rose, the most-memorable artist from the premiere mostly for his inability to keep his mouth shut. The guy almost went home! This could've just been a one-episode stay for him in the competition, but he manages to stick around. We have the two brothers still there, some accomplished artists, and then some later artists the mentors didn't really even seem to want, which was awkward.

Now, the competition moves forward and we can start to get to know these people better.

CarterMatt Verdict

Overall,Ink Masterseason 11 was a great kick-off to the season in terms of packing in content like artists are told to pack in color. The face-off format was a bit lacking, mostly in that some good artists went home just because of unlucky pairings, but overall, it's a joy to haveInk Masterback in our lives once more.

What did you think aboutInk Masterseason 11 episode 1? Let us know right now in the comments!

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