Ink Master (season 10)


Ink Master: Return of the Masters is the tenth season of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master that premiered on January 9 at 10/9c and concluded on April 24, 2018 with 16 episodes. The first two episodes of the season marked the series' last to air on Spike prior to the network's transition to Paramount Network nine days later on January 18. Despite this, the remaining episodes continued to air on the new channel. The show is hosted and judged by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, with accomplished tattoo artists Chris Núñez and Oliver Peck serving as series regular judges. The winner received $100,000, a feature in Inked magazine and the title of Ink Master.
The premise of this season was having three teams of six artists that were led by three Ink Master winners, season two winner Steve Tefft, season seven winner Anthony Michaels, and season nine winner DJ Tambe. The live finale also featured the coaches going head-to-head in the first ever Master Face-Off, in which the winning master would also receive $100,000.
The winner of the tenth season of Ink Master was Joshua Payne, with Juan Salgado being the runner-up. The winner of the Master Face-Off was DJ Tambe, making him the first and only to win two consecutive seasons, with Anthony Michaels being the runner-up.

Judging and ranking

Judging Panel

The judging panel is a table of three or more primary judges in addition to the coaches. The judges and the coaches make their final decision by voting to see who had best tattoo of the day, and who goes home.

Master Jury

Similar to the human canvas jury and jury of peers, the coaches had to select one artist with the worst tattoo of the day to be put up for elimination.

Jury of Peers

At the live finale, the eliminated artists chose one artist and one coach to advance into the final two.

Contestants

The first episode featured 24 artists competing in a two part marathon to be one of the 18 artists which will then narrow down to the team's six members who were drafted through the first day of the competition. In the first part of the marathon, the top 9 artists chose which team they wanted to be apart of, while in the second part, the coaches were able to finalize their teams by picking from the remaining 15 artists.
Names, experience, and cities stated are at time of filming.
Contestant NameYears of
experience
HometownOutcome
Josh Payne14Cortland, New YorkWinner
Juan Salgado15San Juan, Puerto RicoRunner-up
Roly T-Rex6Orlando, Florida3rd place
Jason Elliott6College Station, Texas4th place
Deanna Smith31/2Denton, Texas5th place
Jeremy Brown15Garden Grove, California6th place
Daniel Silva3San Francisco, California7th place
Frank Ready12Oklahoma City, Oklahoma8th place
Rene "Fame" Montalvo10Willimantic, Connecticut9th place
Amanda Leitch5Renton, Washington10th place
Mike Diaz4Lubbock, Texas11th place
Gary Parisi21Chicago, Illinois12th place
Lil’ D24Atlanta, Georgia13th place
Katie Rhoden8LaPlace, Louisiana14th place
Matt Buck4New York, New York15th place
Linzy Michelle9Ventura, California16th/17th place
Chris Sparks10Austin, Texas16th/17th place
Garrett Bisbee4Milwaukee, Wisconsin18th place

Chosen

Team DJ
Matt Buck
Lil’ D
Josh Payne
Frank Ready
Chris Sparks
Deanna Smith

Team Steve
Garrett Bisbee
Jeremy Brown
Rene "Fame" Montalvo
Gary Parisi
Katie Rhoden
Roly T-Rex

Not chosen

Contestant progress

Indicates the contestant was apart of Team Anthony.
Indicates the contestant was apart of Team DJ.
Indicates the contestant was apart of Team Steve.

Episodes