I agree with those but I also think Carly suffered from never connecting with some type of fan base. With David Cook you get rock/alternative rock sound to identify with. With Brooke you get adult contemporary sound. With Michael Johns you have blues/rock sound etc. But with Carly she tried to sound like what ever the musical theme was instead of, as Randy and Simon put it, making it her own. If she had followed say the Ann Willson, Pat Benatar, Lita Ford, Grace Slick vein type of singing she might have found a semi rock fan base. But even when she had a chance to do Heart she just tried to be Ann Wilson and if your going to do Ann you need to do it Ann Wilson plus ONE voice wise to do that song justice. Carly has a good voice but she never really brought it all and never really hit one out of the park so to speak. Had she picked a musical genre and stuck with it she might have lasted longer.
Plus obviously the tats were a problem with the audience. Ever board discussing her they had a problem with the tat for some reason. I think in this case it took away from her vocally and had people focus visually on her arm instead of her voice. One has to remember with AI it is the total package that people are voting on and if for some reason tattoo or no tattoo if your not connecting to a fan base you are off the show.
Re the tat: maybe it’s just me, but if you are an “unusual” looking woman, don’t put a tattoo of a gorgeous woman on your arm.