Carrollton tattoo artists on ‘Ink Master’

Meet Craig Foster and Miami Burgess

7:30-11 p.m. Tuesday. Free. Highlanders Tavern and Grill, 7436 Douglas Blvd, Douglasville. www.highlanderstavern.com.

A pair of longtime friends who work in Carrollton will see if they can ink their way to $100,000 on Spike’s “Ink Master” reality competition show starting Tuesday night.

“Ink Master” features tattoo artists tackling a variety of challenges, using volunteers (dubbed “human canvas”) willing to get free tattoos that may or may not be to their liking. A panel of expert judges pare contestants down one by one.

Craig Foster, who owns Skinwerks Tattoo & Design, is back for a second try. Three seasons ago, he finished eighth after judges found his black and gray pinup tattoo unappealing.

Foster was thrilled when the show invited him back for season six using a new gimmick: master vs. apprentice. Most newbies learn from a more experienced artist in a mentor/mentee situation. Miami Burgess was Foster’s master in 1995 and the two have remained close buddies since.

As a result, they say they got along fine on the show, unlike other pairings.

“Mentor-apprentice relationships don’t always end well. Some end horribly,” said Burgess, who now works as a freelance artist at Skinwerks and other shops. “But we were there for each other.”

Foster has an apprentice but doesn’t think he was experienced enough for “Ink Master.” “I offered myself as the apprentice and Miami as the man who taught me,” he said. “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.”)

“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.

Burgess, already a graffiti artist with a love for airbrushing, stopped by a tattoo shop and began to work there. 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,’” Foster said. “I earned my spot.”

Foster, who is married with three kids, said his time on “Ink Master” in 2013 raised his profile and business at Skinwerks boomed.

“The show managed to do what hard work couldn’t do,” Foster said. “It’s shown nationally, internationally. … The show does such a good job promoting us as artists.”

Stylistically, the two are contrasts. Foster likes saturated colors and a cartoonish 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 gray portraits.

“I just want people to say wow,” Burgess said. “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.”