Inkmaster Judge Luke Wessman

Tonight I sit down with Oliver, Dave, and Chris to help judge this weeks episode of  Inkmaster. (Episode 10 season 4) I would have loved to have been on an earlier episode where I could have really went off on the bad work being done.  but at this stage of the competition, only six artist left, and they are all pretty good tattooers.  At this point it was really just nit picking the details as all the tattoos were great. I have a love hate relationship with tattoo “reality” shows.  Like many of my peers its hard to see our beloved profession dumbed down to be consumed by the masses for entertainment, for that I hate it.  But I love how it has helped some of my dear friends.

 I’m thankful totattooers like Ami James, Oliver Peck, and Chris Nunez for maintaining some control (even though small) of pop culture tattooing even though it is out of hand, tattoo tv would have been even worse without their influence and guidance now with Inkmaster and in the past with Miami ink.  

Some of these artist, are talented artist, but I feel most of them have little understanding of the craft, its history, and therefore doing it a disservice by publicly representing “tattooers” as many of them are newer  in the business and don’t really represent us.  They know the price of tattoo machines, not the value, they know the price of books, not the value.  When it comes to Inkmaster I've always watched it because of my respect Oliver and Chris as veteran tattooers and friends. They have old school knowledge, modern outlooks, and respect for the new enhanced artistic nature of current tattooing.  The show also seems to educate the public a bit on what to look for in quality tattooing, and lord knows people need that.

Tattooing has changed a lot since I started getting tattooed almost 20 years ago.  But I take comfort in the fact that my friends and peers are talented and smart enough to stay ahead of the curves, meanwhile passing and carrying on some of tattooing necessary traditions.  We are standing on the shoulders of giants. Thank you tattooing.