Ink Master 2022 (Season 14): Meet the judges

Ink Master season 14 is set to premiere on September 7 with ten new episodes. With three new judges, the show will feature tattoo artists Ryan Ashley, Nikko Hurtado and Ami James. Additionally, the show will also feature ten fan-favorite contestants from the previous season.

Season 14 of Ink Master will be hosted by Joel Madden, lead vocalist for the pop/punk band Good Charlotte and co-founder of music companies Veeps and MDDN. Contestants will have to perform challenging tattoo-oriented tasks that will test their creativity and precision.

The official synopsis of the show reads:

Ink Master contestants compete in various tattoo challenges that not only test the artists’ technical skills but also their on-the-spot creativity, where they must create and execute an original tattoo on command.

The synopsis adds:

"Challenges focus on different tattooing techniques, such as shading, line and proportion, and styles including photorealism, Tribal, American traditional, and pin-up."

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Who are the judges in Ink Master season 14 ?

1) Ryan Ashley

Ryan Ashley is a 35-year-old who was raised in Pennsylvania and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007. She spent five years as a fashion designer in New York City for a private label.

However, Ashely wanted to do something out of the traditional working system and so she returned to Pennsylvania to work as a tattoo artist at a small street shop. After working there for a few months, she was convinced of her talents and began meeting people by appointment.

Ryan appeared in Ink Master's eighth season in 2016 and won the competition, becoming the first woman to do so.

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2) Nikko Hurtado

Born in the San Fernado Valley in 1981, Nikko Hurtado's love for art developed at the age of 16. He started taking art classes at the Art Center of Pasadena.

However, after taking classes for a few months, Nikko shifted to the construction business. Later in 2002, he picked up the tattoo machine and restarted his passion for tattooing. A few years later, he made a colorful Batman tattoo which changed his life forever.

The tattoo helped him becoome famous and hebegan appearing on a number of shows like LA Ink, Tattoo Wars, Tori & Dean, and Spike TV’s Ink Master.

His talent helped him get the opportunity to ink several famous people. This included musicians like Drake, Diddy, The Game, Fred Durst, West Borland, Brandon Boyd, Jose Pasillas, Wale, Andrew WK, and Cheryl Cole.

He has also inked athletes including Carlos Boozer and Chris Cole, as well as actors Dwane "The Rock" Johnson, Guillermo Diaz and Jenna Jameson. Hurtado is also the artist behind the tattoos of celebrities like Jeffree Star, Jesse James, and Kat Von D.

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3) Ami James

Other than being a tattoo artist, 50-year-old Ami James is also a television personality and an entrepreneur.

He was only 15-year-old when he had his first tattoo experience. Following that, he moved to the military service in the Israel Defense Forces as an infantry sniper. However, he went back to his apprenticeship with the tattoo artist Lou of Tattoos By Lou in 1992.

Today, Ami is the co-owner of the tattoo parlor Love Hate Tattoos, which is based in Miami Beach and is the subject of TLC's reality TV show Miami Ink. He also co-owns the DeVille clothing company and the Miami nightclub Love Hate Lounge with two of his friends.

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Ink Master is executively produced by Glenda Hersh, Steven Weinstock and Andrea Richter. Benjamin Hurvitz, Jessica Zalkind and Tim Palazzola serve as executive producers. Donny Hugo Herran is the executive in charge of production for MTV Entertainment Studios.

Viewers can watch the premiere of Ink Master season 14 on September 7, 2022 on Paramount+.