A local woman, who is proudly marked for life, hopes to make her own mark on the tattoo world in the coming weeks.
Sherina Handsor is part of the 2020 Inked Magazine Cover Girl Contest that, if she’s successful, could see her and the work of art down her right side, grace the cover of Inked Magazine.
The decision to participate in the contest was an impulse, she says, but that initial jolt seems to have worked out for her as she has already made her way into the top 20 and is sitting fourth in her group. Voting for the top 15 ends Feb. 27 at 9 p.m.
The potential cover model, who lives in Westlock with her five-year-old son Brayden, holds to the idea that tattoos are meant to be deeply personal, that they mean something, describe something, or mark some specific event. That’s where the rumoured ink addiction comes from too.
“I think they show strength. You usually get a tattoo when there’s something in your life that you are overcoming. Tattoos usually are symbolic for something that somebody has been through, she said.
Handsor is a nurse who works with people with disabilities while raising a young boy, but talking about herself is out of her character,.
She sat for her first tattoo in 2008, when she split up with her previous partner, with whom she had two kids. It’s a butterfly with their initials inside.
“That was the first time I had to learn how to spend time away from my kids.”
The rest of the pieces, she added as things kept happening — that’s how she sees that addiction to get more tattoos developing. It’s not about getting one because you want it, but because something happened and you want to represent it, guard it, or remember it.
Then she met someone, lived in Whitecourt and had Brayden. The next piece, a set of roses, came after his birth.
“(The roses) weren’t done for years. It was just an outline. When I moved back home, I got them filled in, two or three years later.”
Back home for Sherina is B.C., and why she returned is something that’s unfathomable to most: Brayden’s father passed away.
That’s when she filled in the roses and added a yellow dragon, for strength.
“My best friend is an artist so she drew it one of a kind … I wanted it to be a symbol of mine and not common.”
Still, something was missing in B.C. Sherina wanted to have family close for Brayden. Her parents are in Sherwood Park and her husband’s in Whitecourt.
“I had to establish a life for me and my son here, and I chose Westlock … I’m a small-town girl. When I went to nursing school, I went away to Lethbridge and I had a job in the city before my son was born. It just really wasn’t me, I didn’t like it. I wanted to be in a small town.”
She then added two dragon heads in the shape of a heart.
The complete piece, on the side of her body, is a composite of the tattoos she has had done over the years. The way she thought it, the butterfly and the dragons are landing on the roses and there’s a smoke effect behind.
Separate from it is a small tattoo of Groot on her calf. Brayden dressed up as the Marvel character for Halloween one year.
Since she was accepted as a contestant, she has had some help from local photographers. She’ll continue campaigning (although it seems like a second job, she says) but is still happy with how far she made it.
“It’s almost humorous to me, but life just keeps pushing you forward, you just have to do it. If you’re going to enter a contest, you need to try.”
There is a cash prize attached to the cover spot, which she says she’ll use to continue raising her son as best as she can.
“There is a big pressure on being a widowed mom. I feel like it’s even bigger because I have older kids who turned out really well. They’re exceptional young adults. They work in oil and gas. They’re good within their community.
“We always want to be so perfect, but we are not perfect parents. Nobody is.”
The three brothers are really close despite the fact that the older ones are living in Fort McMurray.
For now, she’s taking Brayden to Cuba for a week. He’s always wanted to see the ocean.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @andreea_res
