Warsaw native Teresa Sharpe won the finale of “Best Ink” season 2 Wednesday on the Oxygen channel, beating out the seasoned tattooer and winning $100,000 and a cover feature in Tattoo magazine. In the finale, Sharpe, now living in Fort Wayne, was up against two other tattooists, DJ Tambe, who has been a tattoo artist for 15 years, and Jerod Ray, a self-taught tattooist of five years. Ray was eliminated after losing the ink challenge where the judges asked the artists to do a tattoo that combines the lives of the artist and the “skin,” the person they are tattooing. Finally, in a head-to-head battle between Sharpe and Tambe, they were each asked to tattoo a celebrity. Sharpe was asked to tattoo A.J. McLean from the boy band Backstreet Boys. He asked for a tattoo of his newborn daughter’s hand print. Disappointed in the lack of challenge of a simple hand print, she suggested a tattoo of the baby’s hand wrapped around her father’s finger. He loved the idea, and after seeing the final product, said he would be back for another tattoo. After 10 weeks of flash and ink challenges, and a hard decision from the three judges, the 4-1/2-year tattooist was announced the winner. Sharpe wants to set some money back for financial security and to help send her brother to college. She also would like to do some traveling.
