London Ink opens its doors with a staff of Louis Malloy, Dan Gold, Nikole Lowe and Phil Kyle. Louis recalls his ideas behind the design of David Beckham's "Guardian Angel" tattoo. Dan, a graffiti guru, discusses his troubled youth and how he has problems taking orders. Louis believes that Dan's talent is worth the gamble. Nikole creates a rift by refusing to take Louis' advice of adding more styles to her repertoire. He decides the team needs a pep talk which ends up more like a comedy, reinforcing his notion that it will be hard to make this group into a well oiled machine.