From Karen L. Hudson,
Your Guide to Tattoos / Body Piercings.
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In this season opener of Miami Ink, we get a glimpse into the kind of drama we can probably expect to see even more of in future episodes. Besides, what produces better ratings than a little drama?

Kat Von D has now joined the crew full-time, so fans of the lovely Kat are in luck. It also means we’ll be seeing a lot more glimpses of her husband, Oliver, in the shop. Is he keeping tabs on her?

Cariann is the first customer of the show. She brings a rough sketch of what she wants to Ami – a severed zombie hand with the fingers in the “rock on” positions. It has a bit of a traditional style to it – a green zombie hand, complete with stitch lines, bolts sticking out and a bloody bone protruding from the bottom.

Hey, Big Spender
All of the crew are living it up and enjoying their fame and fortune, but Nuñez seems to be taking it to extremes by spending without control. He walks into a car dealership, zooms in on a brand new Escalade and is driving out with it within minutes. He says he’s a live-for-the-day kind of guy and believes in enjoying the present to the fullest.

Alexis’ father passed and not long after his death, she came across a poem that said if you find a penny heads up, it means an angel is saying hello to you. Alexis wants Ami to give her a penny with angel wings for her father. Ami says it’s too small and to do the details justice, it would have to be larger, and he suggests a nickel. This annoys Alexis and she says she’s willing to cut out some of the detail as long as it still resembles a penny. Ami says it’ll still look bad, and that taking away the details will make it indistinguishable as a penny. Kat jumps in and says that the copper coloring would make it clear that it’s a penny, and Ami says that maybe Kat should do this tattoo. Kat says fine – she thinks she can do it. And she does; the penny is perfect, details and all, and Alexis is happy.

Alex already has a dragon half sleeve from Nuñez and is back for more. He wants to add a tiger under the dragon to finish out the sleeve. The tiger represents strength and he’s had to be strong against a lot of bad influences and bad decisions.

The Shop Clown
The shop’s getting busier and Yoji’s ready to start tattooing full time, so they decide they need a shop manager to help run the business end of things. In walks Anthony, a guy with no tattoos and no previous experience. Of course they’d turn him away, right? No! So, Anthony ends up telling one girl a tat on the bottom of her toe would be cool (they don’t do toe tattoos), another woman that they could give her an all-white-ink tattoo (they don’t do those, either) and hitting on a client before anyone tells him he’s not the right guy for this job. Duh!

Tish and her daughter Sam walk up to Ami, and Tish explains the tattoo she wants. Her son was only two when he passed away from choking as a result of a case of whooping cough. She carries a tiny urn with her that holds some of his ashes, and the urn has a fairy bowed down in mourning on top. She wants the image of this fairy on a crescent moon and two stars. Given the fact that Ami hates tattooing fairies, he handles this very respectfully and does a beautiful job on the tattoo.

Ami’s going through the shop bills and finds the one for the Escalade. Ami’s seriously ticked off with Nuñez’ live-for-the-moment attitude and incessant spending.

Damon comes in and talks to Darren about his tattoo idea. He explains that he’s a Type 1 diabetic, and is surprised to learn that Darren is, too. He wants the ripped skin effect with a brick wall and a syringe underneath, showing that even though Type 1’s look very much the same as everyone else on the outside, they have a constant battle raging on the inside. Darren changes up the design a little, which Damon likes, but they butt heads for a while over Damon’s desire to turn it into an armband. Darren pleads with him to just leave it as it is, and finally Damon concedes.

The Final Straw
A guy walks in the door with a delivery for Nuñez – a very nice, very expensive new watch. Ami completely blows his top over this one and tells Nuñez exactly how he feels about his irresponsible behavior before storming out the door.

Dave was electrocuted with 69,000 volts of electricity when he was 16. He wondered why he survived it and wasn’t sure what his purpose in life was until his little girl, Alexandria, was born. Kat does a beautiful portrait of the girl, saying that it’s nice sometimes to do a portrait that doesn’t have a sad, depressing story behind it.

The guys (minus Ami) are at the bar, and Nuñez is ranting about Ami’s nose being in his personal business. Garver wonders why Ami even cares what Nuñez does with his own money. Nuñez does the only thing he seems to know how to do and orders a round of beers for everyone at the bar. Miami Ink airs Tuesday nights on TLC at 10/9 Central.