The popularity of reality-based television shows now brings tattooing live and in color, right into your very own living room. And you even have two shows to choose from, depending on how dramatic you like your reality tv. Your two choices are MIAMI INK from The Learning Channel and INKED presented by the A&E Network. Both shows are set inside actual working tattoo parlors, and both generally follow the various daily activities of the tattoo artists and clients who come into the shop to get tattooed.

I don’t have cable tv myself, however over Labor Day weekend I was vacationing with family possessing extensive cable television channels. I managed to catch an episode of each tattoo show, jumping right into both series in the middle of the season. It was an interesting way to examine the different shows without much prior background on either and I definitely was struck differently by each program.

MIAMI INK takes place in the South Beach area of Miami, Florida. The show I saw took a look at a series of customers and their tattoos and presented each as a little story. The various clients all talked about their designs, what the tattoo meant to them, why they felt it was time to get this particular tattoo, and maybe why they picked the artist that they were working with. The issues addresses are some of the most common that I get asked about here at BellaOnline.com and I felt that the tattoo experience was communicated clearly, with a nice little personal angle on each. The variety of artists and styles shown in this episode made me think that if I went to this shop in reality, I could get some great ink done.

INKED takes place in the Hart & Huntington Tattoo Company shop located in the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The episode of this show that I saw had much more focus on the drama involved in running the tattoo shop. More footage was devoted to watching and listening to conflict between the shop employees that showing any tattooing. The manager openly discussed how much he hoped to be leaving Las Vegas shortly. I felt this show takes much more of the sensational angle of reality tv. One tattooist depicted was joking with a client who was getting a bird tattoo. The artist said that the client should get some hunters on his abdomen, since the client had birds all across his chest and arms. The client clearly was unhappy and maybe even insulted by this suggestion, which the artist then made again two or three more times during the course of tattooing the man’s new bird. I felt turned off to the tattoo shop atmosphere captured in this show and wouldn’t want to get work done there in reality.

From my single episode look at each tattoo reality show, if I had cable tv, I’d be watching MIAMI INK, but not INKED. You may choose whichever style of television ink suits you best.

For more information:

MIAMI INK from TLC - new episodes run Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET

INKED from A&E - new episodes on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET


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