(From left) Doomkitten and Erin Chance, tattoo artists from the Richmond shop Unkindness Art, who will compete on Spike's "Ink Master" reality show (Photo by Marcus C. Ingram)
Erin Chance and Doomkitten, two Richmond tattoo artists, will compete in the ninth season of Spike TV's hit reality show "Ink Master." Nine shops from across the country will be sending their two top artists to compete for a $200,000 grand prize, an editorial feature in Inked Magazine, and, for the first time in the program's history, the title of “Master Shop.”
Chance and Doomkitten represent the Unkindness Art tattoo shop on Broad Street, where Chance is a co-owner, and will work as a pair throughout the course of the show.
"Ink Master," according to the network, challenges the “artist’s technical skills, but also their on-the-spot creativity, where they must create and execute an original tattoo on command.”
An example of Doomkitten's artwork (Photo by Marcus C. Ingram)
Both Chance and Doomkitten are not big on traditional tattoos, they say. Doomkitten says he is inspired by comic books, Japanese culture and video games. “I think us both coming from strong art backgrounds will allow us to be able to do more rad tattoos on the show,” he says.
Chance moved from New Zealand to push her art and career forward. She is very shy, but her art is outspoken and reflects a decade of experience in tattooing. Doomkitten has been tattooing for six years, which makes him something of a neophyte in the tattooing world, he says.
The Unkindness Art team found during the show that they needed to blend their strengths and weaknesses in order to stand out before a very tough panel of judges made up of musician and host Dave Navarro and tattoo experts Chris Nunez and Oliver Peck. Doomkitten compares the environment of "Ink Master" to The Hunger Games, as the competition gets more and more fierce as it progresses.
“None of us really needed to be on TV,” says Doomkitten, “but our shop is relatively new to Richmond, and all of us are transplants from the around the world. Erin is from New Zealand; I am from New Mexico.” The shop's clientele spans the globe as well, and many fly in to Richmond to be tattooed by its artists.
The team saw that being on "Ink Master" could be great publicity for their shop — "basically one huge commercial," says Doomkitten.
“I am hoping that it’s going to put us on the map,” says Chance. “We have only been here for under two years, so we are trying to build a local presence and clientele.” Richmond viewers will get the chance to see the team tattoo on television, showing them what this fairly new tattoo shop has to offer.
The Unkindness Art team is committed to exploring creativity on the show. “Traditions in tattooing can be counterintuitive to growth,” says Doomkitten. “At our shop we are very supportive of trying new things, staying current and not adhering to traditions too much.”
Unkindness Art will host the season premiere of "Ink Master" at GWARbar, 217 W. Clay St., Tuesday, June 6, from 8 to 11 p.m., with the show airing at 10 p.m.
