This Kelowna woman could be on the cover of Inked Magazine

Alesha Mah's first tattoo came at the age of 17. It was a small heart made out of music notes.

Now, she has several more all over her body and is vying to be on the cover of inked magazine.

Mah is part of the Inked Cover Girl contest, where she is currently second in her group.

She's canvasing for votes to push her into the finals for a chance to be on the cover and take home a cash prize of $25,000.

“Work has been pretty hard the last couple years with COVID, so I will definitely be putting some away and investing it,” Mah told Kelowna10, adding she'll likely use some of the money to help her sister.

“My sister is in the trans community [and] she’s undergoing some major facial surgeries this coming year,” she explained. “I would love to be able to support her when she comes home from that.”

She also wants to give back to her parents who have been supportive of her journey in the contest, and who she said have helped her get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

A majority of Mah's tattoos cover her arms, something she never actually intended to do. But after a friend made her a custom stencil, she decided to get her arms inked, and now the majority of her tattoos are there.

“I’m half Chinese, half Romanian, and he drew me like this gypsy ninja goddess,” she explained. “As soon as he put the stencil on my actual arm, I looked in the mirror and was like, it looks pretty awesome.”

Mah decided to enter the contest after seeing it online last year. She realized it would allow her to share her love for tattoos.

“There’s a lot of people out there like me who have tattoos, and this is just a form of expressing themselves, and I think this is a cool magazine to be able to do that with,” she said.

Daily votes can be made free online using Facebook, or purchased, with proceeds going towards the non-profit MusiCares. It provides health and welfare services to the music community.

Voting for the current round ends Feb. 10. The finals begin March 11, with the winner announced on March 17.