Ink Master (season 1)

The first season of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master debuted on Spike on January 17 and concluded on March 6, 2012, with a total of 8 episodes. The show is hosted and judged by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, with accomplished tattoo artists Chris Núñez and Oliver Peck serving as series regular judges. The winner received a $100,000 prize, a feature in Inked Magazine and the title of Ink Master.

Ink Master
Season 1
Hosted byDave Navarro
JudgesChris Núñez
Oliver Peck
No. of contestants10
WinnerShane O'Neill
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes8
Release
Original networkSpike
Original releaseJanuary 17 (2012-01-17) –
March 6, 2012 (2012-03-06)
Season chronology

The winner of the first season of Ink Master was Shane O'Neill, with Tommy Helm being the runner-up.

Contestants

Names, ages, and cities stated are at time of filming.

Contestant Age Hometown Outcome
Shane O'Neill 39 Middletown, Delaware Winner
Tommy Helm 38 Brentwood, New York Runner-up
James Vaughn 38 Asheboro, North Carolina 3rd place
Josh Woods 30 Nashville, Tennessee 4th place
Léa Vendetta 40 Boca Raton, Florida 5th place
Bili Vegas 29 New York, New York 6th place
Heather Sinn 41 Los Angeles, California 7th place
Al Fliction 42 Brooklyn, New York 8th place
Jeremy Miller 27 Austin, Texas 9th place
Brian "B-TAT" Robinson 30 East Orange, New Jersey 10th place

Contestant progress
Contestant Episode
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Shane O'Neill TOP2 SAFE WIN HIGH SAFE WIN WIN Winner
Tommy Helm WIN SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE BTM3 TOP2 Runner-up
James Vaughn SAFE WIN SAFE SAFE TOP2 BTM3 BTM2 Eliminated
Josh Woods SAFE SAFE BTM3 BTM3 WIN TOP2 ELIM
Léa Vendetta SAFE BTM3 HIGH WIN BTM2 ELIM
Bili Vegas SAFE HIGH BTM3 BTM3 ELIM
Heather Sinn LOW SAFE SAFE ELIM
Al Fliction SAFE BTM3 ELIM
Jeremy Miller BTM2 ELIM
B-TAT ELIM
  The contestant won Ink Master.
  The contestant was the runner-up.
  The contestant finished third in the competition.
  The contestant won Best Tattoo of the Day.
  The contestant was among the top.
  The contestant received positive critiques.
  The contestant received negative critiques.
  The contestant was in the bottom.
  The contestant was eliminated from the competition.

Episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleOriginal air dateUS viewers
(millions)
11"Fresh Meat"January 17, 2012 (2012-01-17)1.4

  • Skill of the Week: Raw Talent
  • Flash Challenge: The artists must go inside a smelly slaughterhouse where they have 90 minutes to tattoo a skull in the style of their choice on a pig carcass.
  • Winner: Josh Woods
  • Elimination Tattoo: The artists must cover up their canvases' tattoo they regret getting. Jeremy's canvas has difficulty sitting through Jeremy's cover-up tattoo, which results in her walking out, leaving Jeremy's tattoo unfinished. Jeremy is up for elimination, but B-TAT ends up getting eliminated for producing a sloppy and amateurish tattoo.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day winner: Tommy Helm
  • Bottom 2: B-TAT and Jeremy Miller
  • Eliminated: B-TAT
22"Botched Head Tattoo"January 24, 2012 (2012-01-24)0.8

  • Skill of the Week: Lines
  • Flash Challenge: The artists must show their line work on a car. The cars are numbered from 1-9, so each artist must pick a key that contains a number, and that becomes their assigned car to work on.
  • Guest Judge: Ton Jones
  • Winner: Bili Vegas
  • Elimination Tattoo: The artists must tattoo a tribal design. Problems occur during the elimination tattoo. Due to his canvas' condition with psoriasis, Shane ends up tattooing Flash Challenge guest judge Ton, as it's the only option for him to make a finished tattoo. Bili struggles tattooing his canvases whose blood pressure started to go down while getting his head tattoo. Therefore, he was unable to finish it. Al and Léa both produce bad tattoos, but Jeremy is sent home.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day: James Vaughn
  • Bottom 3: Al Fliction, Léa Vendetta and Jeremy Miller
  • Eliminated: Jeremy Miller
33"Pasties and a Camel Toe"January 31, 2012 (2012-01-31)0.6

  • Skill of the Week: Shading
  • Flash Challenge: The artists must body-paint a 3-D design on their model.
  • Winner: Al Fliction
  • Elimination Tattoo: The artists must design a black and grey tattoo on their canvas. Bili and Josh produce less-than desirable tattoos, however Al is ultimately eliminated.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day: Shane O'Neill
  • Bottom 3: Al Fliction, Bili Vegas and Josh Woods
  • Eliminated: Al Fliction
44"Ink Disaster Piece"February 7, 2012 (2012-02-07)1.0

  • Skill of the Week: Technical Precision
  • Guest Judge: Todd Weinberger
  • Flash Challenge: The artists must carefully placed a bevel star on the client's choice spot in either the knee or elbow.
  • Winner: Josh Woods
  • Elimination Tattoo: The artist must tattoo a photo realism tattoo on their canvas. In the end, a tearful Heather is eliminated.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day: Léa Vendetta
  • Bottom 3: Bili Vegas, Heather Sinn and Josh Woods
  • Eliminated: Heather Sinn
55"Game On"February 14, 2012 (2012-02-14)0.9

  • Skill of the Week: Color
  • Flash challenge: The artists must paint prosthetics on their canvas that reflect their amputated canvas' personality.
  • Winner: Shane O'Neill
  • Elimination Tattoo: The artists must create a colorful American Traditional tattoo. A shocked Bili is eliminated.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day: Josh Woods
  • Bottom 2: Bili Vegas and Léa Vendetta
  • Eliminated: Bili Vegas
66"Permanent Mistakes"February 21, 2012 (2012-02-21)0.9

  • Skill of the Week: Proportion
  • Flash Challenge: The artists meet Dave at a church that serves as inspiration behind their next challenge. They each have 45 minutes to tattoo prayer hands on their canvas.
  • Winner: Tommy Helm
  • Elimination Tattoo: The artists must tattoo a pin-up tattoo that shows proportion. Léa is ultimately eliminated.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day: Shane O'Neill
  • Bottom 3: James Vaughn, Léa Vendetta and Tommy Helm
  • Eliminated: Léa Vendetta
77"Picture Imperfect"February 28, 2012 (2012-02-28)1.3

  • Skill of the Week: Lettering
  • Flash Challenge: The artists must spray paint a graffiti design on a bare wall.
  • Winner: Shane O'Neill
  • Elimination Tattoo: Portrait tattoos highlight the elimination tattoo, but some artists feel uncomfortable with the subject because they also needed to include lettering in their portrait while capturing the likeness. Josh is eliminated just before the finals.
  • Best Tattoo of the Day: Shane O'Neill
  • Bottom 2: James Vaughn and Josh Woods
  • Eliminated: Josh Woods
88"Ink Master Revealed"March 6, 2012 (2012-03-06)1.1[1]

  • Final Elimination Tattoo: The judges pick a random design for each artist that is based on their portfolio and their work on the show. Peck assigns James with the Japanese calf sleeve, Navarro gives Tommy the dark and heavy tattoo, and Núñez picks another Japanese tattoo for Shane, but bigger. The artists have 12 hours to tattoo their tattoo. However, that is not the only part of the elimination tattoo as they also have to create a 6-hour tattoo in the style of their choice.
  • Winner: Shane O'Neill
  • Runner-Up: Tommy Helm
  • 3rd Place: James Vaughn

References
  1. "Tuesday Cable Ratings: 'Tosh.0' on Top + 'The Game', 'Storage Wars Texas', 'Southland' & More". TVBytheNumbers. March 7, 2012. Archived from the original on September 4, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
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