Why why why why WHY must everyone always tattoo female figures. Nothing against it, but I'd certainly like to see something else just for the sake of variety. Cleen and Anthony faced off with female figures last week, and in the finale, 2 of the 3 chest tattoos featured females and all 3 sleeves did (Christian's a little more indirectly).
The format of the finale in terms of voting was totally whack. I wonder if Christian knew while watching the season air that he was going to be screwed when it came to America's vote. I'm not sure if it was a lot of editing or if he really is just that unlikable in real life. America's vote was a popularity contest that had nothing to do with the tattoos, and the Artist Jury had nothing to do with the tattoos either, it seemed like the veterans were making sure that Cleen got the nod no matter what.
The reason that mad me so mad was that, as much as I dislike him, Christian easily deserved to be in the final 2 at least.
Looking at the chest pieces, I have absolutely no idea how anyone could argue that Christian didn't have the best tattoo. It was clean, had nice color, and it fit the canvas perfectly. My father (who HATES tattoos) was watching the final with me and even commented that he thought it looked slick and fit nice. Anthony's chest piece was a mess in my opinion. That dude's chest is just a big swirly dragon body with a head that doesn't stand out or look especially badass. And for God's sake the thing wasn't finished. I know most people on here are Anthony lovers (myself included), but his chest piece left a lot to be desired. Cleen's chest tattoo was also bizarre to me. I think a lot of that has to do with the style (thin line black and grey? that doesn't even sound like it will look good). The elements were all done well individually, but it wasn't super cohesive, wasn't very large, and didn't fit the body as well as Christian's. Christian was the obvious winner of that round.
The sleeves were a little closer. Christian's sleeve was beautiful,told a story, and was truly unique. I've never seen anything like it in 7 seasons of Ink Master. The color wasn't as saturated as it should have been, but that's about the only knock. Anthony's sleeve was very cool. But I must say that he just kind of stacked the various elements on top of one another. And as Dave commented, it wasn't a full sleeve (the challenge specifically said sleeve, not "arm tattoo"). Cleen's sleeve was okay. The female gypsy face was jacked and I don't care for his personal "style". Also, did anybody notice that the design he did on the inside of her sleeve is almost identical to the colorful tentacle design cleen has on his shoulder areas? Basically did the same thing.
All in all. I thought that in terms of tattoos it should have been 1) Christian 2) Anthony 3) Cleen. But because of the lame voting system, Anthony was basically handed the title the second Christian was eliminated. I truly believe Anthony would have lost that match up head to head (unfinished chest tat, non full sleeve).
