Brittany Allsop got her first tattoo when she was 16. Six years later, she was named Miss Ink Australia 2015. But the tattoos weren’t just for the sake of body art, they were "a way to cover the scars she was teased for as a child."
"I used to get picked on when I was younger as I had an allergy to [mosquito] bites," Allsop told the Daily Mail. "On my legs it used to look like chicken pox scars. I used to say I would get tattooed one day and cover my scars."
“I pretty much bribed mum to get one. It was just a small cross and she thought that would be it,” Allsop told The Daily Telegraph. “But no - once I turned 18 it just went on and I really got addicted to it.”
She has so many tattoos now that she’s lost count, but Allsop said that “different parts of my body have different themes. … I have a family leg, with mum and dad’s wedding photo portrait and my brother’s portrait, and my sisters’ names and my niece’s and nephew’s initials. … And because I love music - I used to play violin - I have a music leg.”
For the Miss Ink Australia competition, judging is based on “tattoo quality and quantity, the personality of contestants, their outfits, ‘stage presence,’” and a question and answer portion. “Realism and traditional tattoos usually score the highest marks,” said competition founder Fallon Nicole. “We look for clean lines, good placement, colour and shading effects.”