| Bgcolour: |
| ||||||||
| Num Episodes: | 16 | ||||||||
| Module1: |
| ||||||||
| Prev Season: | Shop Wars | ||||||||
| Next Season: | Grudge Match — Cleen vs. Christian |
Ink Master: Return of the Masters is the tenth season of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master, with 16 episodes that aired from January to April 2018. 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 (Old Town Ink). 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.
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.
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.
At the live finale, the eliminated artists chose one artist and one coach to advance into the final two.
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 part 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 Name | Years of experience | Hometown | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Payne | 14 | Cortland, New York | Winner | |
| Juan Salgado | 15 | San Juan, Puerto Rico | Runner-up | |
| Roly T-Rex | 6 | Orlando, Florida | 3rd place | |
| Jason Elliott | 6 | College Station, Texas | 4th place | |
| Deanna Smith | 31/2 | Denton, Texas | 5th place | |
| Jeremy Brown | 15 | Garden Grove, California | 6th place | |
| Daniel Silva | 3 | San Francisco, California | 7th place | |
| Frank Ready | 12 | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | 8th place | |
| Rene "Fame" Montalvo | 10 | Willimantic, Connecticut | 9th place | |
| Amanda Leitch | 5 | Renton, Washington | 10th place | |
| Mike Diaz | 4 | Lubbock, Texas | 11th place | |
| Gary Parisi | 21 | Chicago, Illinois | 12th place | |
| Derrick "Lil’D" | 24 | Atlanta, Georgia | 13th place | |
| Katie Rhoden | 8 | LaPlace, Louisiana | 14th place | |
| Matt Buck | 4 | New York, New York | 15th place | |
| Chris Sparks | 10 | Austin, Texas | 16th place | |
| Linzy Michelle | 9 | Ventura, California | 17th place | |
| Garrett Bisbee | 4 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 18th place |
| Team Anthony | |
|---|---|
| Mike Diaz | |
| Jason Elliott | |
| Amanda Leitch | |
| Linzy Michelle | |
| Juan Salgado | |
| Daniel Silva |
| 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 |
| Contestant Name | |
|---|---|
| Tim Furlow | |
| Rachael Head | |
| Rachel Helmich | |
| Christian Masot | |
| Koko Tatts | |
| Slowburn |
Indicates the contestant was a part of Team Anthony. Indicates the contestant was a part of Team DJ. Indicates the contestant was a part of Team Steve.
| Episode | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||
| SAFE | TOP2 | SAFE | TOP2 | TOP4 | BTM2 | SAFE | HIGH | LOW | SAFE | Winner | |||||||
| SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | TOP4 | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | TOP2 | ADV | Runner-up | |||||||
| SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | BTM3 | TOP2 | SAFE | BTM4 | BTM3 | ADV | Eliminated | |||
| SAFE | BTM6 | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | BTM3 | BTM4 | BTM3 | ELIM | Guest | ||||||
| BTM3 | BTM6 | HIGH | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | HIGH | BTM3 | BTM3 | TOP2 | BTM4 | Guest | ||||||
| HIGH | SAFE | TOP2 | SAFE | TOP4 | SAFE | SAFE | BTM3 | BTM3 | BTM3 | BTM3 | ELIM | Guest | |||||
| Daniel Silva | SAFE | SAFE | LOW | BTM3 | BTM3 | SAFE | LOW | Guest | |||||||||
| Frank Ready | SAFE | HIGH | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | HIGH | Guest | |||||||||
| Fame | SAFE | SAFE | BTM3 | SAFE | BTM3 | SAFE | ELIM | Guest | |||||||||
| BTM3 | BTM6 | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | ELIM | Guest | ||||||||||
| Mike Diaz | LOW | SAFE | SAFE | LOW | BTM3 | ELIM | Guest | ||||||||||
| Gary Parisi | SAFE | SAFE | LOW | SAFE | HIGH | ELIM | Guest | ||||||||||
| Lil’ D | SAFE | BTM6 | BTM3 | BTM3 | ELIM | Guest | |||||||||||
| Katie Rhoden | SAFE | SAFE | BTM3 | Guest | |||||||||||||
| Matt Buck | SAFE | SAFE | Guest | ||||||||||||||
| Linzy Michelle | SAFE | ELIM | Guest | ||||||||||||||
| Sparks | LOW | ELIM | Guest | ||||||||||||||
| Garrett Bisbee | Guest | ||||||||||||||||
The contestant won Ink Master.
The contestant was the runner-up.
The contestant was eliminated during the finale.
The contestant advanced to the finale.
The contestant won Best Tattoo of the Day.
The contestant was among the top.
The contestant received positive critiques.
The contestant received mixed critiques.
The contestant received negative critiques.
The contestant was in the bottom.
The contestant was put in the bottom by the Master Jury.
The contestant was eliminated from the competition.
The contestant was put in the bottom by the Master Jury and was eliminated from the competition.
The contestant returned as a guest for that episode.