Kat Peters doesn’t consider herself as a mannequin so when the possibility got here to enter a contest to be featured on the duvet of a distinguished tattoo journal, she entered on a whim.

“I used to be like, I’ve tattoos, I’ve an amazing persona, I’m hilarious and the prize cash would go to a home,” she mentioned with amusing.

Inked journal hosts a contest yearly for his or her subsequent cowl mannequin. The winner is chosen by the voting public. In keeping with the competitors, folks can vote as soon as every day and have choices to buy extra votes with 25 per cent of the proceeds going to the MusiCares Basis.

“I like tattoos, I like music and that Inked magazine stands for every thing I actually love, so…” Peters mentioned.

If she wins the $25,000 prize, she will probably be utilizing the cash for a down fee on a home.

“I’ve completed so many issues in life and the proudly owning a house factor, that actually will get me,” she mentioned. “That’s the one I would like. I would like my household to really feel safe, that’s the largest factor for me.”

Peters’ mother and father paid for her first tattoo when she was 18 years previous to cease her from drawing black and purple markers throughout her arms.

She has a few matching tattoos together with her sisters — a coronary heart on her sleeve and a tacokat, however her largest is the Valkyrie wings that cowl her again.

“I feel a Valkyrie is a fighter and I’m a fighter. I’ve been by way of some crap in my life, I at all times find yourself standing again up,” she mentioned.

Every wing took 6.5 hours, her most sitting time. She mentioned she was feeling antsy for the final hour or so.

For Peters, tattoos are therapeutic.

She mentioned she meditates whereas she is getting them, referring to it as a stress aid.

“We’re a little bit of a canvas in my eyes, whether or not you wish to be tattooed or not,” she mentioned. “We’re scarred and my scars, they’re child scars, however then I’ve my tattoo scars, they’re my therapeutic scars.”

This competitors is an opportunity for Peters to return out of her shell, one thing that developed when she was bullied as a child.

“All of my tattoos imply one thing,” she mentioned. “For me that (first) one was like a caterpillar escaping its shell. It’s just a little butterfly.”

The third spherical of the competitors closes Feb. 18, with the top-voted contributors transferring to the quarter-finals. Voting within the subsequent spherical will probably be from Feb. 19-25. If Peters wins that spherical, she strikes on to the semi-finals, with voting Feb. 26-March 4. The finals begin March 5 and finish March 11.

Peters is vying towards Jennifer Bowden, one other competitor from Revelstoke.