VALDOSTA, Ga. – Calling all Ink Master fans, tonight is the night for some ink revenge.
The Watch Party at Dick’s Wings of Ink Master’s Grudge Match, “Old Lion v. Young Lion” starts at 10 p.m. Everyone in town with a tattoo or the merest thought of getting one will be there to watch local tattoo artist Tito Zambrano square off with former castmate from Ink Master’s Season 12, Big Jaz.
Earlier in the hot and muggy December afternoon, Tito Zambrano was busy doing what he does best at the newest Hollywood Tattoo Twisted Needle location in Valdosta.
“I’m doing a tattoo right now,” he says. “A back. Of a Hannya mask.”
Buzzing needle unstopping, Tito continues to stitch together the image of a female demon goddess in black ink while he briefs Valdosta Today on the particulars of tonight’s long-awaited episode.
The tattoo subculture in Valdosta has grown fast, along with Hollywood Twisted Needle Tattoo Studio’s growing number of locations since it opened its first studio in 2004. Ten years ago, having tattoos was still a little taboo in this Bible Belt backwater. But things have surprisingly changed in spite of the Deep Southern-fried puritanical bent.
Your grandmother might have a tattoo these days. And Tito Zambrano might have done it.
Earlier this year in May, Paramount Network announced they’d renewed the TV show for seasons 12 and 13 in addition to ordering the spin-off series Ink Master: Grudge Match.
Grudge Match allows former Ink Master contestants the opportunity to settle vendettas left unfinished. In Tito’s case, his grudge is shared with former cast member Big Jaz, a freezer-sized tattoo veteran with 25 years of experience and no patience for the younger Tito, who he famously accuses of not working hard enough and tries to vote him off in the first week.
Tito, who moved to the U.S. in 2003 from Panama after finishing art school, was chosen in June 2018 to appear in Season 12 as one of the nine tattoo artists who would be eliminated through a series of challenges.
Tonight at Dick’s Wings, the grudge will be stoked with “lots of backstabbing going on,” according to Tito.
“This whole grudge started because Tito needed to prove hisself,” Big Jaz said on the episode teaser. “Twenty-five years of tattooing, I don’t have anything to prove.”
Cut to Tito, looking edgy, saying, “I definitely have a grudge against Big Jaz, because the first week he put me down for elimination.”
Let the games begin.
The show has been around for over a decade, with Dave Navarro as the host, and features some of the hottest names the world at-large might never have heard of until Ink Master spotlighted their skills. Careers are made off of appearing on this show, and Tito Zambrano fits right in. Plus he loved doing the show and wouldn’t hesitate to appear in another TV production if the opportunity ever came back around.
“All the crews from all the Hollywoods will be in the building,” friend and fellow Hollywood Tattoo artist Tony Tong says. “We’re inviting all friends family and members of the tattoo industry to come out and join us in watching the show.”
New episodes premiere Tuesdays at 10/9c on Paramount Network. Watch full episodes of Ink Master: http://prmnt.net/inkmaster #InkMaster #ParamountNetwork.
To contact Tito, email him at Titozambranoart@gmail.com, or visit his Instagram here.
