Miami Ink premiered on TLC in 2005 and is considered the grandfather of all tattooing shows. It followed a tattoo shop on the Miami strip and all the people that worked there. It was a heartfelt, intimate show that lacked a lot of the over-production that now characterizes reality television (the stingers, the sound effects, the mood music). The show also focused on people getting that tattoo and why they were getting it, if there was a reason. Miami Ink leaned on the stories of the people who came in to get tattoos—focusing on not just what they wanted but also how they put their trust in the tattoo artists. From this show came four spin off shows, LA Ink, NY Ink, London Ink, and Madrid Ink. LA Ink was the most successful spinoff and lasted four years. It followed Kat Von D, an oringal tattoo artist from the show Miami Ink.
Ink Master is a tattooing compeition show. It features various contestants of various tattooing backgrounds and tattooing styles. Each espidoes feachers some kind of quick compeition, where artists must display their skills, like fine lines, colors, themes, consistency, etc. There is a winner for that quick comeptition. Then, artists are each even a human canvas to tattoo. Each of these tattoos must follow a certain theme. Judges adn the human canvases get together to decide who did best in the challange. From there, someone is elimanted. Dave Navarro hosts, but is often upstaged by judge Oliver Peck. One season finale was a live event following an 18-hour tattooing marathon. As far as this kind of thing goes, it’s the best.
Tatoo Nightmares is a show about three tattoo artists. The main premise of the show is to correct or cover up really awful tattoos people have gotten. During the tattooing session, the customers reveals why they got the tattoo in the first place, weather if it was a wierd time in their life or a dare, etc. The shows builds tension because the artist are never really sure if they will be able to cover up the ink that the person has.
Tatto Resuce is a tattoo shop improvement show. Much like Kitchen Nightmares, Bar Rescue, Tabathia Takes Over, this show follows two guys who travel the United States to go in and improve the businesses. Whether that’s improving technique, avoiding health code violations, or learning how to use Photoshop. All the critique is delivered without the patronizing of the competition shows, with an intension towards actually improving the lives of the tattoo artists in their shops. It’s actually a really uplifting show.
Black Ink Crew is an unscripted reality soap opra on VH1. Black Ink Crew gets in name not only for what the characrers do, but also because all the characters are African American. The shop they work at is in Harlem. While there are a few scenes of tattooing, the show mainly follows all the artists and the drama they get themselves into.