In the opening scene of the “Ink Master” season two premiere, 16 tattoo artists gather outside a building door marked with the words “Morgue Entrance.”
Show host and judge Dave Navarro walks out, flanked by fellow judges Chris Núñez and Oliver Peck.
“Welcome to New York City,” says Navarro, “a mere 34 square miles on the map, but home to over 1,400 licensed tattoo artists, making it the unofficial tattoo capital of the world.”
The Jane’s Addiction guitarist then explains to contestants that for their first challenge, they’ll have to tattoo a snake and dagger. The catch — it has to be done on a corpse, because, “according to legend, some early tattoo artists would sneak into morgues to practice.”
The contestants freak out, but head inside. Seconds later in Tuesday’s 10 p.m. premiere on Spike, a sheet covering a “corpse” is peeled back. To the relief of the artists, turns out it’s just a silicon body.
While the body isn’t real, the morgue was.
“There were real bodies there, it was an actual morgue,” Navarro tells the Daily News. “Off camera, we were surrounded by dead bodies the whole time. And we, the three judges, actually went into one of the refrigeration compartments and hung out with some corpses for a while.”
Some of the contestants complained about the smell in there.
“They were complaining, but at the end of the day, that’s part of the apprenticeship,” Navarro, 45, explains. “Apprenticeships are challenging, and there are a wide range of tasks that need to be accomplished before someone can just go ahead and start charging for tattooing in a proper shop.”
“Ink Master” had the highest-rated first season ever for a Spike original series. More than 2.3 million viewers tuned in to the season finale in March.
While the other two judges own tattoo shops, Navarro, who has more tattoos than he can count, offers a different perspective.
“They’re professionals, so they’re coming from a very technical, artistic place when they’re critiquing,” Navarro says. “Whereas me, I’m a collector. I’m a client. So what I’m looking for is something that’s esthetically pleasing, which fits the body nicely — just something that I think would make me happy as a client.”
Navarro heads back out on tour with Jane’s Addiction later this month, and is working on his own music.
“That’s why ‘Ink Master’ is so fun for me, because my job on the show isn’t creative,” he says. “It’s just as mind-blowing for me to watch as a fan of tattooing as I would imagine a live musical performance would be for a fan of music.”
gsalamone@nydailynews.com
Source : nydailynews[dot]com
