A young mother and entrepreneur and a woman who runs an addictions clinic in Nanaimo are in the running to be Inked Magazine’s next cover girl.
Dianna Gibson and Tay Kambeitz are contestants in the Inked Cover Girl contest. The contest rewards the winner with $25,000 and an all-expense paid trip to a photo shoot with photographer Christopher Kolk and his design team to create an exclusive cover shot for Inked.
The Inked competition narrows down the contestants through online votes from the public in nine rounds of voting until a winner is selected. The first public voting round started Feb. 11 and the top five contestants in each group will be selected in the next round of voting leading up to Thursday, March 12.
Gibson, 24, is a single mom who operates online ladies’ fashions clothing boutique Anna’s Outlet and is also a model. She was born in Chilliwack, but has lived on the Island almost all of her life. She started getting tattoos about five years ago.
“It’s just a hobby of mine. I love art, colour, so it just kind of puts a statement on my arm that explains that…” she said. “I have 42 tattoos. Some of them are just cute, some of them are fun, some of them have meaning. I like to travel, so I get a tattoo every time I travel, too. A little memory for me.”
Gibson has a portfolio of images from her modelling work and has appeared in magazines before, but it was a friend of hers who brought the Inked Cover Girl contest to her attention.
“I’ve been doing modelling for five years now, so I thought it would be nice to be on the cover and have a chance at winning a prize too. That would be awesome,” she said.
Gibson said the prize money would help with a down payment on a house for her and her two boys and any remaining cash she would use to expand her business.
Tay Kambeitz, currently in sixth place in her group, is also trying to make the cut to her group’s top five and advance.
Kambeitz, according to her profile on the Inked Cover Girl search website, chose a butterfly as her first tattoo when she was 16. She said she finds getting tattoos addictive is always coming up with new ideas for illustrations.
Kambeitz said she runs an addictions clinic owned by her family in Nanaimo, and should she win the contest she would use some of the prize money to clothe and feed patients and help them in other ways and would also put some of the money toward travel goals.
To vote for Gibson in the Inked Cover Girl competition, visit https://cover.inkedmag.com/2020/dianna-gibson.
To vote for Kambeitz, visit https://cover.inkedmag.com/2020/tay.
To learn more about the contest and other contestants, visit www.inkedmag.com/.
RELATED: Island woman’s tattoos put her in the running for Inked magazine cover
photos@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter