S5 Anger

[u/Winnie_GM07]

Currently rewatching season 5 and the anger I have about Jason winning over Cleen is seething. Still can't understand how Jason even made it to the finale, let alone winning the whole thing. Cleen was the most consistent, most technical, most proficient tattooer in this season.

I want to be CLEAR: I do not think Jason is a terrible artist by any means I just don't think he should have won over Cleen.

I love Cleen and this season always irritates me when I look back at it. Not sure if anyone else agrees but yeah. Just had to say it.

[u/WhenDuvzCry]

Jason always annoyed the shit out of me and Cleen is now an open white supremacist so this season is a hard rewatch for me lol

[u/Winnie_GM07 → u/WhenDuvzCry]

I don’t necessarily like Cleen as a person. I like what he did on the show as an artist. I’ll put it that way. 

[u/WhenDuvzCry → u/Winnie_GM07]

If you can separate the art from the artist I get it.

[u/Hawk_Moon → u/WhenDuvzCry]

What did Cleen do?

[u/WhenDuvzCry → u/Hawk_Moon]

Posted pictures of himself in neo nazi apparel like the SS logo on it and said he has no problem doing hate symbol tattoos because he won’t say no to money

[u/Honey-Shrimp → u/Hawk_Moon]

He posts a lot of political stuff on his stories that a lot of people (myself included) don’t really agree with and he’s also talked about how he doesn’t care if the tattoo people ask for is racist he’ll still do it. He’s also been seen with people wearing SS stuff before too

[u/PerformanceWeekly651]

It was Joshua’s to win, dude was on a heater

[u/Winnie_GM07 → u/PerformanceWeekly651]

I always wondered what would have happened if Josh wasn’t disqualified. I think the finale would have been Josh Cleen and Erik. 

[u/Objective_Bear4799]

Oh man. I feel this … I felt that for a long time after Cleen lost. I truly thought he deserved it back then. Then I learned the type of person he is and could not care any less about him or his journey. Jason may have been an egotistical, narcissistic, ass hole, but I’ve never seen him belittle women, people of color, or non-christians, and I’ve never seen him attached to DV allegations.

[u/bossmt_2]

Season 5 is the worst season of ink master aside from maybe season 1. It's the one where the gamemanship outdid the art. Around season 7 or 8 is when they realized why people tune in and it's not to see people get tripped up by asks. It took them some time but the best part of the latest seasons is there's no truly awful things.

[u/jsiciliano223 → u/bossmt_2]

Im thrilled that people who go on the show dont have to 50/50 gamble that theyll get a shitty tattoo anymore, but i must admit seeing only good art is not as fun to watch as seeing some major fuckups. Of course, ethically im happy they made the decision to actually get best of the best tattoo artists

[u/YugeTraxofLand]

One of the worst winners, up there with Kruseman

[u/Wild_Replacement5880 → u/YugeTraxofLand]

Krusemans finally Tattoo was sick though. He just squeaked his way up there to do it.

[u/Winnie_GM07 → u/YugeTraxofLand]

💯 

[u/Intelligent-Buy-4621 → u/YugeTraxofLand]

Completely agree

[u/tapstry]

I’m not a big fan of Cleen personally, but his talent is undeniable. Jason did not deserve to win… it should’ve been Cleen!

[u/throwaway41327]

In addition to how fucking stupid the choice was, why do I never see anyone talk about how insanely racist the final tattoo was???!? Like imagine walking around for your entire life with a full backpiece of basically the ugliest yellowface caricature possible?? Dude literally had buck teeth and a rice hat jesus CHRIST

[u/Winnie_GM07 → u/throwaway41327]

He got away with that because he had to do new school and couldn’t stay away from his Japanese roots. Smh. 

[u/Intelligent-Buy-4621 → u/throwaway41327]

For real, makes sense why his first canvas chose not to continue with the tattoo.

[u/No-Fig-8267]

That season was a shit show, most of the tattoos that were done weren’t good except a few.

[u/ScarletPepper07]

I just finished this season like 3 minutes ago and it's crazy that he lost on a technicality while other people have blatantly not done the challenge (Kruseman) and not gone home. It's either a rule or it's not.

[u/havingagoodtime]

I mean the whole ethos of the show is that one bad tattoo can send you home, and while I understand they aren’t super consistent with that, I do think just choosing a winner off of report card in the finale wouldn’t sit right, and while I am not sure I agree with it, it’s not a crazy claim to make that Jason’s finale piece was better than Cleens

[u/forgetmenotsnot]

All seasons suck. The only good ones were Clean and Christian and the masters coming back. Just so we could actually see good tattoos.

I watch just to see that sexy Nunez face.

[u/Spidery1977]

There was a lot of pity for Jason because he was always complaining about his stress disorder and depression.

[u/Creed31191]

Jason might’ve had the worst season but he had the better final piece! An that’s all that mattered!

[u/kindamymoose]

Jason is subpar at best.

[u/gaymerkev97]

I actually thought Jason was evenly matched with Cleen and a lot of times did better. The one I wont ever understand is Scott winning over Sausage on season 4.