Inked Cover Girl contest: SWFL women make it to group finals, one step closer to $25k prize

Candi Betts Cuoto dreams of being on the cover of Inked Magazine someday — her arms and legs covered in glorious, colorful tattoos.

“I want to be a tattoo model,” the Port Charlotte photographer says. “I want to be on the cover of a magazine. I wanna show my kids that if you can dream it, you can do it. Just try it. …

“And if you don’t make it, whatever. But if you don’t try, than you’re definitely not making it.”

Cuoto, 31, is leading by example: She’s one of thousands of tattooed women who have been competing in the annual Inked Cover Girl contest. The winner gets $25,000 and appears on the cover of Inked Magazine.

She and at least seven other Southwest Florida women have moved into the contest's next round of voting. And competition is starting to get more intense.

“It’s about to get cutthroat,” she says.

Round 1: Southwest Florida women compete for $25,000 grand prize in Inked contest

Round 2: Southwest Florida women advance to Top 10 round in Inked contest

Round 3: SWFL women show off tattoos in Top 5 round of Inked Cover Girl contest

It's unclear how many locals compete every year. The contest website doesn't group competitors by region or show their cities and states of residence.

Cuoto signed up for the contest after her friend — Jessica Hart of Punta Gorda — made it all the way to second place in 2021 and actually got to appear on the magazine cover.

So Cuoto thought, "Why not?" Plus it's a way to show off some of her new tattoos.

She only recently started getting tattoos about a year ago, she says. Now her arms and other parts of her body are covered in them.

“I love the idea of not seeing a skin color,” she says. “I like to see color — like, the whole body covered. I love the way that looks.”

Her tattoos are divided into two themes: Night and darkness on her left side with moths, moons, beetles, a moon goddess and lots of what she calls “witchy fun stuff”; and light and daytime on her right side with fire, wyvern dragons, flowers and a sun goddess.

Her tattoos make her feel more confident, she says.

“I don’t look at my body and say, ‘Oh, I don’t like my arm,’” she says. “I’m like, ‘Look at that badass tattoo! I love it!’

“It definitely boosts self confidence. You’re looking at your body like art.’”

Voting in the contest's group finalists round continues through Thursday, Feb. 24. It narrows down each group of five women to just one who will advance to the quarterfinals round.

The Inked Cover Girl contest is divided into many small competition groups online. It’s unclear how many of those groups there are in the group finalists round, but Inked says thousands of women compete every year in the United States.

Here are eight Southwest Florida women competing in the group finalists round and where to vote for them:

• Candi Betts Couto, 31, of Port Charlotte, photographer: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/candice-betts

• Heather Donaldson, 32, of Fort Myers, preschool teacher and artist: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/heather-donaldson

• Caitlin Marie Florence, 25, of Fort Myers, marketing and branding consultant: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/caitlin-marie-florence

• Kat Garces, 29, of Fort Lauderdale (formerly of Naples), collage artist and graphic designer: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/kat-garces

• Rhianna Keesling, 29, of Arcadia, formerly of Punta Gorda, wedding photographer: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/rhianna-keesling

• Savannah Leslie, 33, of Cape Coral, tattoo artist: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/savannah-leslie

• Victoria Nelson, 31, of Cape Coral, office manager: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/victoria-nelson

• Gina von Ronn, 31, of Cape Coral, artist: cover.inkedmag.com/2022/gina-von-ronn

If Cuoto wins, she plans to use the $25,000 prize to help pay for her new house, buy a drum set for her husband (a member of the Jack Michael Band) and, of course, get more tattoos. She plans to cover her arms and legs with tattoos, she says, and maybe her torso, too.

Tattoos are expensive, though. That’s why she waited to start getting them until after her kids got a little older.

“I have three kids (ages 1, 3 and 8), and you’ve got to get priorities straight first before you go and spend a bunch of money on tattoos,” she says. “‘Cause good work ain’t cheap, and cheap work ain’t good (laughs)! ...

“I just love the way tattoo models look. But obviously, you don’t wake up one day, go to the tattoo artist and look like that. It’s a process that costs money."

The Inked Cover Girl contest is a fundraiser for MusiCares, a nonprofit that helps musicians in times of financial, personal or medical crisis. It also spotlights tattoos and tattoo culture.

You can vote once for free every day (registration through Facebook required). You also can buy additional votes for $1 each to help support Musicares.

After the group finalists round, the winners advance to these rounds:

• Quarterfinals, where the group finalists compete in several new quarterfinals groups. One winner will be chosen from each group (Feb. 25-March 3);

• Semi-Finals, where the quarterfinals winners compete in several new semi-finals groups. One winner will be chosen from each group (March 4-10);

• And Finals, where all the semi-finalists compete in the same group to win the competition (March 11-17).

To learn more about the contest and see the other competitors, visit cover.inkedmag.com.

— Are you a Southwest Florida woman competing in this year’s Inked Cover Girl contest? Email reporter Charles Runnells at crunnells@gannett.com or connect with him on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) or Instagram (@crunnells1).

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Inked Cover Girl contest: Fort Myers, Cape Coral women make group finals