A Nanaimo woman has pretty much half her body tattooed now, and she’s hoping for a chance to show some more people her ink.
Joanne Secord, a 50-year-old paralegal, has made it through multiple rounds of Inked Magazine‘s Cover Model Search contest and is on the cusp of the semifinals.
Her sister-in-law let her know about the contest and Secord initially brushed off the idea of entering before she had a chance to give it a little more thought and decided it might be fun.
“I just finished getting a really cool side piece, the entire side of my body…” Secord said. “I thought it would be really cool to get that in a magazine.”
The single mother of a teenage daughter moved to Vancouver Island from Edmonton a few years ago. At the time, she only had a few tattoos, but it’s now become an addiction for her, she said.
“I’ve had a bit of a rough life…” she said, mentioning years of abuse. “I’m a strong person now because of it. A lot of those people end up in really bad situations and I didn’t.”
Secord says spending time on the tattoo table at Red Cat Tattoo and Art Studio “takes away a bunch of stuff” and her tattoos of butterflies, pretty flowers and a bird flying from a cage symbolize getting away from the past and finding freedom.
Secord has lost 75 pounds through workouts and a healthy lifestyle, which has made something like winning a magazine cover contest seem more attainable – “it’s something I never would have done in a million years, because I was not confident enough,” she said.
She’s gotten enough votes each round to make it to the quarterfinals and the field of contestants is shrinking. At last count, Secord was leading her quarterfinal bracket, but hopes for continued support from Nanaimo to help her to the semifinals and maybe the magazine cover.
“I wasn’t prepared for the amount of work it is trying to get people to vote for you because that’s the only way you can win,” she said. “I work three jobs already and it’s become another job – every free moment I have, I’m trying to market myself.”
To vote for Nanaimo’s Joanne Secord in Inked Magazine’s Cover Model Search Contest, click here.
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