Season Three of Ink Master featured sixteen tattoo artists: Ally Lee, Chris May, Craig Foster, Frank McManus, Jackie Jennings, James Harvey, Jason Clay Dunn, Jime Litwalk, Joey Hamilton, Joshua Hibbard, Katherine 'Tatu Baby' Flores, Kyle Dunbar, Madison 'Maddie la Belle' Loftis, Mike Paterek, Richard 'Made Rich' Parker and Yovan 'ES' Barraza.
Season three marked the first time in the series that a contestant returned for another season. Tatu Baby was eliminated in season two, but was brought back by Ink Master's Facebook voting.
Episode 1 - Baby Got Back (aired July 16, 2013)
The Skill of the Week was Flexibility and the Flash Challenge involved tattooing a prisoner using a single needle tattoo machine, which Joey won.
For the Elimination Challenge, the tattooists had to cover-up a previous design on their human canvas. Tatu Baby won Best Tattoo, while the human canvas jury voted Maddie as having the worst tattoo. Maddie's tattoo lacked detail, Mike did a bad tattoo on top of only bringing one machine for the competition, but Frank's tattoo was poorly executed with rough edges from the color and a bad outline, so Frank was eliminated.
Episode 2 - Thrills for Grills (aired July 23, 2013)
The Skill of the Week was Precision and the Flash Challenge involved working in teams of three to draft and create a custom automotive grill plate, which Jackie, James and Joey won.
For the Elimination Challenge, the tattooists had to ink realistic medical anatomy. Craig won Best Tattoo, while the human canvas jury voted Mike's tattoo as the worst. Chris and Maddie were in the bottom as both their pieces had equal shortcomings, but Mike's tattoo lacked anatomical realism and texture so he was eliminated.
Episode 3 - Tattoos and Lace OR Fire and Lace (aired July 30, 2013)
The Skill of the Week was Texture and the Flash Challenge involved create and inking a realistic, sexy leg garter on a live model, which Joshua won. In an Ink Master first, Maddie was actually eliminated in the Flash Challenge for having extremely basic texture for her leg garter tattoo.
For the Elimination Challenge, the tattooists had to ink a Phoenix. Although there was no winner actually confirmed during the episode, the Ink Master website later stated that Craig had won Best Tattoo.
James' canvas did not see eye-to-eye with her artist and walked out, resulting in no canvas for James' to showcase his ability upon. The judges interviewed both the canvas and the artist to see what the problem was; it was determined that James could not handle the nagging personality of his canvas. The judges agreed that as Ink Master, one would need to know how to instill confidence in their client that they could deliever what was requested. They also looked back on James' texture in the garter tattoo, stating that it was poorly detailed and rough. All this combined resulted in his elimination.
Episode 4 - Elysium Challenge (aired August 6, 2013)
The Skill of the Week was Linework and the Flash Challenge involved assembling a tattoo machine and tattooing a barcode (inspired by the movie Elysium), which Craig won. Both Ally and Tatu Baby failed to assemble their machines in the given time, making it impossible for them to ink their canvases.
For the Elimination Challenge, the tattooists had to ink a Celtic design. Joshua won best tattoo, while the human canvas jury voted Ally as doing the worst tattoo. Ally, Jackie, Chris and Jason in the bottom for failing to be consistent and symmetrical with their Celtic tattoos. Ultimately, Ally was eliminated.
Episode 5 - Baby Beats Down (aired August 13, 2013)
The Skill of the Week was Values/Black and Gray Shading and the Flash Challenge involved tattooing evenly shaded designs over a scar on the clients' bodies, which Tatu Baby won.
For the Elimination Challenge, the tattooists had to ink black and gray tattoos in a Day of the Dead art style. Jime won Best Tattoo, while the human canvas jury voted Craig as doing the worst tattoo. Overall, the judges were unimpressed with this challenge; Jackie and Jime were the only two who were given praise. Chris, Craig, Jason and Rich's tattoos were overly dark, with Craig drawing additional criticism for using black mixed with white ink for his gray shading, which is a no-no in the industry when it comes to black and gray tattoos. Tatu Baby executed a good design but failed on the detail, despite having a satisfactory design and skill set applied. Joshua, Joey, and ES came up short on their usage of black, their tattoos were too light and their line work could have been improved with more detail. The judges ultimately decided Chris had the worst tattoo.
Episode 6: Animal Instinct (aired August 20, 2013)
The Skill of the Week was Detail and the Flash Challenge involved painting a model with the pattern of a randomly chosen animal, which Kyle won.
For the Elimination Challenge, the tattooists had to ink an Asian themed, detailed tattoo. According to the judges, none of the artists were qualified to win as they displayed neither the talent nor the ability to complete a traditional Japanese tattoo challenge. The human canvas jury voted Joshua as doing the worst tattoo, he had a basic mask design which was placed on the butt crack of his canvas. Joey's tattoo had a lot of detail, and decent artwork, but was not what the judges were looking for. Jason's tattoo had good detail and a good design for the challenge, but was non-anatomical with limbs coming from unknown sources. Tatu Baby had a good tattoo, but the design of her lion was poor. Kyle executed decent detail but could have done more; he spent too much time coloring when he should have used it for line work. Jackie failed to execute detail in a legible fashion, her lines were wavy and hid the tattoo. Jime had an unorganized background and his inconsistent shaping caused the design to be iffy. Craig's tattoo had a poor background with mediocore details but a decent design overall. ES's tattoo had poor detail, and his work was cluttered and hidden within its own design. Made Rich's was simplistic and lacked any detail, and he was eliminated for his tattoo failing to met the standards of the challenge.
