Rumor has it that the latest tattoo reality show - Tattoo Wars - has already been pulled. It would figure, seeing as how it was a respectable show full of talent and lacked staged drama. It got a slow start, highlighting artists that weren't so widely known, but showed real promise when they featured the likes of Guy Aitchison, Deano Cook and Tom Renshaw. Just when the show started getting really good, it was yanked out from beneath our feet.
Although I can't seem to get confirmation from TLC about the show being pulled, there are no longer any show listings on their website. And I heard about the cancellation from a reliable source - Greg Ashcraft of Skinworx in Bessember, Alabama, was set to have a commercial air during episodes of Tattoo Wars. He posted this bulletin on MySpace the other day: "I had a commercial airing during Tattoo Wars and Empire Publishing Co. just called and TLC is pulling the show off the air."
This is a disappointment and a real loss to the tattoo community. I had even found a great volunteer writer to cover the show, so if you happened to miss the past episode and would like to know what happened, here is her summary.
Comments
Tattoo Wars was one of the best things to happen to the contemporary tattoo community in the last few years. It showed an artist at their best with no distractions from scripted nonsense. I hope TLC brings the show back at some point.
It is a real loss. This was the first tattoo show that really showed the customers how it is done. If our shop had all the drama of La ink or Maimi Ink we would never get any work done.
I hope they bring it back.
go figure, apparently they like to keep everything in their corporate , mainstream pop culture as dumbed down and yeah, like you said….. full of staged drama. its all good though cuz they dont need to be cashing in on our art and our scene anyway, it doesn’t need their tv to sell it.
I was waiting for this…& never knew it was cancelled…(or may be)
this sucks…
I want a reality tattoo show…
best attoo artist with most respect..takes the show
?
ideas bright…
we need more tattoo shows…honestly
This show was great. As a professional tattoo artist and someone who spends most of his time (when not tattooing or doing art) at conventions and in online tattoo boards. I can tell you that this show has avid tattooers and people who get tattooed raving, because for once it shows what tattooing is all about. Its not some well edited scripted show like most tattoo programs on tv. It actually shows very talented and LIKED tattoo artist in the tattoo community. Plus it really shows you what tattooing is all about, It’s about friendly competition amongst artist trying to set the bar in tattooing and Art. It’s about going to convention after convention meeting new artists and people who like to get tattooed and making friends in the process.. But most importantly its about the art and were most of the tattoo shows on tv now lose that I think tattoo wars actually kept it. And I’m most certainly not trying to dog any show about tattooing because I watch all of them avidly and I can also tell you they help are community tremendously. But they lose site of what tattooing is all about and that’s why I can tell you amongst all the real tattoo artists that I’ve talked to and heard from on online boards say that Tattoo wars is so awesome… And I GUARANTEE you if they did another season of tattoo wars and did it the same way they did last season only promoted it like they do LA Ink or even better than, that they’d have a hit! I mean I really never heard of tattoo wars until like a month ago and now that I’ve watched all the episodes I have no clue why it was canceled. The ONLY reason this show was canceled was lack of promotion.That is the ONLY way it could of been canceled. PUT THIS SHOW BACK ON AIR DAMNIT AND PROMOTE IT FUCKERS!!!
Yeah that was the best tattoo series I ever saw. I only got to see the last three episodes because I got lucky to just be skipping across the channels. I had never heard of it before that. So yeah the television network did a lousy job promoting it.