WINNIPEG – It was approaching Canada Day in 2009 when Rebecca Ellis decided to get a maple leaf tattoo on her upper chest area.

“It was the year after my grandma passed away and her birthday is Canada Day,” recalled Ellis, who returned to the same studio in Winnipeg a few months later to add a shamrock tattoo to celebrate her Irish background. “It was just the outline and when I went back to get it coloured in, well, my two-year-old does a better job at colouring.

“It’s just scribbled in there. It’s terrible. Absolutely terrible.”

That’s why Ellis is overjoyed to be the winner of our Winnipeg’s Worst Tattoo contest. Ellis, who was selected from a list of the top-10 vote getters among 87 entries, will receive a free cover-up tattoo from Iron Lotus Body Art.