By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Friday, June 19, 2015
Spike's "Ink Master" is one of dozens of reality competition shows using the same, reliable formula perfected by the likes of "Project Runway" and "Top Chef." In this case, tattoo artists compete for $100,000 in challenges to show off their artistic inking skills on what they call the "human canvas." A panel of expert judges pare them down one by one.
"Ink Master" enters its sixth season Tuesday, June 23 at 10.
Carrollton tattoo shop owner Craig Foster, 42, was eliminated three seasons ago in what many fans thought was a premature departure. He finished eighth after judges found his black and grey pin-up tattoo unappealing.
Foster was thrilled when the show invited him back this season under a new gimmick: master vs. apprentice. Most newcomers learn from more experienced artists in a mentor/mentee situation. Miami Burgess was Foster's master in 1995 and the two have both made careers out of tattoo work.
If you upload the Spike TV app, you'll be able to watch the first episode early.
Though they are vying for the "Ink Master" prize, they say they got along fine on the show, unlike other pairings. I met them at Foster's shop Skinwerks in Carrollton Thursday, where Burgess works as a freelancer.
"Mentor-apprentice relationships don't always end well. Some end horribly," said Burgess. "But we were there for each other."
"I have an apprentice but he isn't experienced enough," said Foster. "So I offered myself as the apprentice and Miami as the man who taught me. He's totally cut out for this. Compared to the trouble we've gotten into, this [show] is a cake walk."
Both were self-described troublemakers in their youth growing up in Cobb County. Neither graduated high school. They met as 19-year-old miscreants in a Cobb County jail. (Foster said he was in for theft. Burgess was a little dicier about his infraction, facetiously saying it was "jaywalking," dubbing jail as "vacation.")
"We saw each other in jail but we didn't talk," Foster said. "A few weeks later, we were at a party and recognized each other."
"Match made in heaven," Burgess said with a smirk. "It was meant to be. We liked girls, dance clubs."
Burgess, already a graffiti artist with a love for airbrushing, stopped by a tattoo shop and began to work there, cleaning toilets, washing cars and learning the craft. After his mom died, he opened his own tattoo shop in Douglasville.
In the meantime, Foster spent 18 months in prison after repeatedly breaking probation. When he got out in 1995, he met up with Burgess and began working under him. "It was like 'The Karate Kid,' " said Foster. "I learned responsibility though at the time it didn't seem that way. I earned my spot."
Foster, who is married with three kids, said his time on "Ink Master" in 2013 was edifying but ultimately frustrating because he didn't think he deserved to leave when he did. But the show did raise his profile locally and nationally. Business at Skinwerks improved.
"The show managed to do what hard work couldn't do," Foster said. "It's shown nationally, internationally. The third season is now airing in Europe. I've been stopped in New York and asked to do selfies. The show does such a good job promoting us as artists."
Still, he wanted redemption and felt he came into season six with an advantage over the others because he was the only one who had already been through the grinder.
Stylistically, the two are contrasts. Foster likes saturated colors and a cartoonish "new school" feel. "Tattoos don't always have to be serious," he said. Burgess said he can do multiple styles but takes pride in his black and grey portraits.
"I just want people to say wow," Burgess said. "I want to please my client. I want their grandparents who don't even like tattoos to say that's awesome. I do a lot of portraits. They may have a loved one pass away. Just to see their face, for them to cry and say, 'Oh my god, it looks like them!' That's fulfilling to me. It hypes me up. It makes me want to be better."
Foster said he's more calculating, more reserved. Burgess is more reactive. "He doesn't have a filter," Foster said. "I'm very cautious with my actions and words. That's why we get along. When one doesn't do something, the other one picks up."
On the show, Burgess said neither played it safe. Go big or go home, he said.
"I'm a sponge," he said. "Craig and I sponge off each other and just learn and get better."
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Want to meet them in person? Here are details for their viewing party at Highlanders Tavern and Grill in Douglasville Tuesday:
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
TV PREVIEW
"Ink Master," 10 p.m. Tuesdays, starting June 23, Spike
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