Invy Rose: 24 Years of Freelelance Modeling!

Music. Welcome to Sunrise Life, the podcast where we have deep conversations with fellow freelance models.

And today I have Envy Rose on the line. Say hello. Hello. I'm so happy that you were able to do a podcast recording with me. I've kind of always looked up to you as like another model that is from my hometown. See, and that's the thing I've always looked up to you. So I love that you have me on today. This is awesome. Thank you. I know that we met in person that group abandoned mansion shoot. And where else? Yeah, a couple of your group shoots as well, too. So a few different ones.

I'm actually not sure what other ones we've done together. It might be just those ones. Those were the days.

Yeah. Yeah, those were. those were fun yeah good times so for the people listening like the community in seattle has had like you know get togethers of group shoots where every once in a while we all get to see each other in real life and but yeah so so for the listeners i would like to hear how you first got into modeling. Yeah. So for me, I was I started in beauty pageants when I was a kid. So I started when I was nine months old until I was about 13. Oh, my beauty pageants. Nine.

Yeah. Yeah. So it was. Yeah. I started a long time, like early, early. So it was quite an interesting adventure as a kid. And ever since I was a kid, I still wanted to keep doing it. But, of course, school happened, and I stuck with school for all of school. But after high school, I wanted to still model and still see what life can happen and started right away and did the best I could and failed a few times and had a couple agencies and didn't go so well.

So I decided to do freelance and then loved it ever since then. And now it's been 24 years freelance work or that long now. I can't believe it's been that long. Yeah. That 24 years is amazing. I started 19 years ago. Okay. Yeah. It's crazy how long you can still keep going.

I never thought like after 24, I would still keep modeling. And now at 42 I'm like wow I'm still I'm still doing this that's amazing so tell me about the agencies that you were working with before like what was up with them yeah so with that. By then, I was, I think I was like 19, yeah, 19, 18, 20-ish. And the one thing that was scary to me is I was already a thin model back then. And I think I only weighed like 100 and maybe 10, maybe 110.

And they wanted me to lose more weight. so for me I was like I can't even begin to where I can lose more weight there's nothing for me to lose so that kind of was a stop to like knowing about what I would do to my body and that was one trigger where I was just I wasn't comfortable with I that's one thing I just wasn't comfortable with somebody telling me I should lose more weight when I was I was so thin back then I couldn't imagine I just couldn't imagine and

then that's why I just I never I never stuck with them well I was with them for about a year and I never stayed with them wow did they book you work that was the thing no not at all not at all I know I know so it was and I think it was a smaller company in California too because I was born and raised in Nevada so it was I was doing a lot of stuff in California and Nevada, and I got more work in Nevada than I ever did in California, so it was quite interesting back then, yeah.

And when did you move to Washington? I moved to Washington about 15 years ago now. Okay. So I've been here for quite a while, and then it's become home to me, that's for sure. Okay. And what brought you up to Washington? A different scenery. The desert in Nevada, it just gets boring after a while seeing just nothing but brown scenery. And when I came up here, it was much more beautiful sceneries and more places to shoot, like more places to have photo shoots.

And it was just a different background each time, too.

So it was just a nice change of everything. Yeah there are nice like forests and waterfronts and rivers and stuff like that oh yeah yeah so many places but the weather doesn't bother you i it's grown on me it did take a while to adjust but i was used to drastic temperatures already so i was used to the snow i was used to heat The rain took a while, but now I get hired to do rain shoots and I'm just straight in the rain for a few hours and I love it. It's just a different type of artwork to do.

And it's been quite an adventure shooting with the rain. That's for sure. That's cool. Yeah, a lot of people will just call the shoot off altogether if it's raining. Exactly. And then I have one photographer. He's like, you ready for that rain? You ready? And you're going to have photographers that don't want to be in it. And then you have some that are just, that's what they crave. And I love it. I love the elements. It's so fun. Yeah, water does usually add something really nice to the photo.

I just wonder if people are worried about their camera gear or... The one thing we do normally have somebody with us holding an umbrella over him the whole time, not over me, but at least over him the whole time. That makes sense. Yeah. So we really watch out for the cameras. That's for sure.

Yeah cool so you the agencies that you worked for back then you mentioned that because they had like really crazy weight restrictions that you decided not to work with them anymore which is really interesting is I've been doing this podcast for a while and you're not the first person that left agencies for that reason I can at least three or four other models that I've interviewed that worked with agencies left for the same reason.

Interesting. I was wondering about that because it doesn't really come out in the open a lot either about weight. I mean, it does, but like we normally don't talk about it to people. Like I normally don't just because people think models always have to do something with their weight. And I mean, everybody's body's beautiful. And that's the thing about now between between 20 years ago and now everybody's more comfortable with different body types.

And that's why I love that it's so much different and better and healthier now. Yeah, I agree. I think that the freelance industry has really opened up a lot more like diversity of sizes and aging and stuff. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yes. Oh, yeah. And come to think about it, like, if I'm visualizing the ultra thin fashion model that agencies typically prefer to have on their runways and stuff, you don't see very many freelance models that look like that. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

That's very true. But it's like, they want you to be at like a 16 BMI or something like ridiculously unhealthy. Yeah, yeah. And it's nice to see more healthier body types out there. But just the different body types. Like, there's some people that will always be skinny and they just can't gain weight, which it's hard for them. But it's good to see somebody that can actually have hips or have the flaws and still be able to get jobs.

That's what was the other thing is like you have a flaw. You can't have a job.

So it's nice to see that we're able to have jobs still. Did you ever watch that show America's Next Top Mom? Yes, of course. I've asked that a few times on the show because it did influence me in the beginning. I thought that I had to do everything on the TV show in order to model. Me too. Yeah, me too. And then it was like, no, you don't really need to. Like, it was quite interesting.

So when you were working with the agency and then you decided to leave and go freelance, back then, around 20 years ago, what was that process like? It was interesting because you didn't have Model Mayhem. You didn't have OMT.

You didn't have all of the websites out there. You had an actual modeling book. So it was a lot harder. I started looking for casting calls and stuff. And I would go to the casting calls. And as a freelancer, I'd still go to the casting calls, not even be representative. But I can still go to one of the calls in Nevada that we had. So I was able to still at least get a couple of commercial work done, which was great. I did a couple of background movie stuff, too.

So it was nice that there was still things I can get into. But it was the manual book. I still actually probably have a couple of my portfolios out there. Okay. I'm really fascinated about this because I started with Model Mayhem was around. When I started, even though when I first got into it, I was on MySpace and Craigslist. But the concept, the modeling book, can you tell me, is that like a phone book for modeling gigs? No, so it was just your portfolio. So it had all my pictures on it.

So with that, I would look, I would do kind of like you did, like go not really, Not too much. It was all in like TVs, like the newspapers and stuff for casting calls. I would go on a website for integrity casting back in Nevada and they would have casting calls on their website. So I knew from them because I started working with a model there that helped me get into it. So I started to be friends with models. And then that's how I got into knowing about the different castings and everything.

And that's when I built my actual portfolio book. And then I would take it in for those castings. So it was a model that actually helped me find Integrity Casting Company that you can check online to see if they have castings. And if they do, you can actually go to theirs, even if you weren't representative with them and everything, which was nice.

That's awesome. And it's good to hear that there was at least still some level of community at some degree way back then, like before social media and everything. Yes, yes, it's quite. Yeah. And it's funny. One of the photographers I met back then, I still talk to now, which I'm hoping someday we can make this 25-year picture next year, the difference between 25 years and back then and now. So it's nice that I've kept in contact with them as well.

That's so cool. Thank you for answering all these questions. I don't know if I've I interviewed somebody that started modeling pre-model mayhem. I'm sure that I have. That's so cool. It's crazy. It's crazy how it's evolved. And I never thought I would still be in the industry because of how much it evolved. There's so many people that are gorgeous out there, and it's so competitive. But as we evolved, too, now I'm a completely tattooed model.

I wasn't like that at the beginning. I had barely any tattoos. It was all natural. And now I have tattoos, so it's completely a different type of modeling sometimes. Wow. Wow. I have so many questions popping into my mind. Okay, the one that I was going to ask. Yeah. So when OMP and Model Mayhem came out, did you jump in right away and sign up for it?

I kind of did, yeah. Yeah. I've been on there for quite a while I would have to look to see when I started but I think it was, I know it was probably 2008, 2009 on one of them, at least, and probably earlier on the other one. I'm not too sure when they even came out. Do you remember your Model Mayhem number? Almost. You almost do. I actually could probably write it out, and it might be right, but I know some numbers might be a little wrong. I know there's at least five numbers in there.

Okay. It's not too long. That's so cool.

So during your modeling career, has modeling been your full-time gig? So it took off as not, of course. It was just like something I wanted to do and get into. When I moved up here to Washington, I didn't have a drop right away.

So it actually became my full-time job for a good eight years wow and then things just didn't work out i mean i mean economy of course happened and everything and life happens and such like that so i did start working a full-time job and i now i do work a full-time job as well as model and as much as possible when I'm not working. It's gone into a little bit of a back burner, but there's not a day that goes by that I don't do at least something with it.

So I at least work on it every day still. That's great. And as far as like other social media platforms where you find work today, like what are you using now? I, well, it's funny you say that.

I, surprisingly, I get some from like Instagram a lot of the time now, Facebook too, which it is harder to weed out the weirdos because you know, I'm like, we would get not legit people all the time. So it's, That's the only hard part is that it's not easy to know if somebody is a real photographer and not anymore because anybody can post anybody's picture. Yeah. So that's been a hard thing.

A lot of word of mouth, really. I've had a lot of photographers reach out to me because they know somebody that is looking for a model and that somebody suggests me.

Or I a lot of the workshops we've done in the past I've been getting work back with the same photographers so it's been quite interesting a mix of everything I should say a mix of everything like Instagram I still get some on model mayhem too so probably everywhere so yeah wow yeah and Having the length of career that you've had, the personality of yourself and your ability to make connections with people, I'm sure, is one of the reasons why you have long-time clients.

Yeah, and that's the other thing is the communication. That's what a lot of people won't hire you if you don't be communicating on emails, phone calls, setting up shoots and everything. And it takes me like a couple of days to get back to some people sometimes, but I like to communicate. And I think some people lose that thing. They can just do whatever and not communicate and still get a job. And you can't. You need to be communicating with everybody.

Yeah. And then I just I like keeping in touch because you never know when you're going to be traveling or if a photographer needs you for something when they're in your town.

So I just I really like keeping in touch with everybody. That's for sure. that's awesome so i have this part of my podcast i've been calling it the photo shoot fail of the day but honestly it could be like a crazy funny crazy good crazy bad story what is one of your crazy photo shoot stories. That's a hard one. That's a hard one. One that catches me right away is I was doing like a Halloween photo shoot. So we had the fog going.

We had, I can't remember what I was wearing. I think I was wearing like a white dress. I can't remember what I was wearing. But I was holding a candlestick and the candles were lit. And we're shooting and shooting and all I smell is burnt hair. And we're still shooting. And I'm like, I think my hair is on fire. And I look, my hair is on fire. And he's still shooting. I'm like, can we stop? Can I get my hair on? Like, it was the funniest thing, but scary.

Oh, my God. Did the photographer know that your hair was on fire? Yeah, obviously. We did get pictures. I do have a picture of my hair on fire. Oh, my God. How much of your hair burned? Not a lot, but definitely you can see it burnt. Like, I had to cover it up for the rest of the photo shoot. I was like, how am I supposed to do the rest of the shoot? My hair is burnt. But with it being long, I was able to cover it up. I just had to cut it when I got home. Oh, my God. I would be so freaked out.

It was definitely freaky at the time. But now looking back at it, I just I have to laugh like it was. Something you would never thought would happen. Oh, my God. That reminds me. I was at a shoot one time in Washington, and the photographer wanted me to wear this wig that had bangs on it to look like Zipatra or whatever. And so he put the wig with the bangs on my head and then was brushing my hair, like the wig hair.

And I didn't know that some of my real hair had, like, brushed down, like, over my face. I thought that it was the wig because it was the same hair color and the photographer was like oh is it okay if i trim these ones and i was like yeah and he was like that's not your hair is it and i was like no you can cut it oh no so he cut it and it was a lot of it was my hair so he basically cut these like butch bangs onto my face.

Oh my goodness so i've been realized that dang it yeah it wasn't the end of the world but i was you know a little shocked well and that's the thing like it makes you kind of like oh anything can happen you just got to kind of like deal with it and roll with it and figure out what to do with it yeah i'm curious like over the course of your career especially early on like have you had any weird scam attempts like people trying to scam you. Not too much scamming but a lot more of like,

pay you just to look at you type of maybe things. And I got myself out of those situations. Like there was a time where I was hired to do the photo shoot. I think it was on model making for sure.

I do at least try to talk to the photographer at least like a couple weeks, at least a month to see if how they like what type of shoot, like just like times, how long you want to shoot, money situation, stuff like that like all of that and I just got a weird vibe and I went to but it was a house sometimes photo shoots happen at a house people have studios in their house I'm used to that but I walked in and there was nothing set up the roommate was there

I was like I didn't know there was somebody else gonna be here so there were one that was the one time I did was like okay you know what I'm not feeling good I think I need to go and I actually left that place and I never talked to that photographer again person again or what but it did not feel like a photo shoot whatsoever so that was the only time I did get out of a situation but ever since then I do my research and then especially

ask for references the best thing that a model can do is ask for references. Because a lot of us will give out references for sure. I'll let you know if I've worked with anybody or if I haven't worked with them and how they are. And that helps us be safe on our side is the references for us models out there. Yeah, very true. But good to follow your intuition. Like if you had like a bad vibe, that's good that you got out of there.

Yeah. And it's good to trust your trust your gut because like you shouldn't put yourself. I mean, because of we're freelance, we don't always have a chaperone with us. We don't always have somebody that's going to be there to protect us. So we have to protect ourselves with our gut to know if we're in a good situation or not. Yeah, totally. And there have been times for myself where I committed to a shoot and then something last minute was like super red flaggy and I've been conflicted.

I'm like, OK, I want to be professional and complete the gig that I have, you know, scheduled. However, something is up. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And safety is first.

Be like and that was when I was I worked for it that was when I was my full-time job and it was like if I wasn't going to do this shoot I can't pay a bills but I I just could not I couldn't do it there was there's a line where you just there's no money worth that that's for sure yeah wow good for you for getting out of there yeah I mean things can be sketchy sometimes they can yeah I want to take a short little break to tell you about Model Society.

ModelSociety.com is a website dedicated to featuring figurative fine art photography for models and photographers. What makes them different than other portfolio hosting websites is that some of those other websites will still host kind of tacky photography or exploitative photos. Model Society screens all of their contributors for quality and authenticity. So you only get the best of the best on there.

If you're not a photographer or model, you can still enjoy and appreciate Model Society because they also have newsletters and magazines featuring their best work and new articles each week. Check it out, modelsociety.com. I will also include a link to Model Society in the show notes. All right, now back to our show. Wow. So I have another question that I like to ask everybody on the show. I call it the rising Phoenix era of your life.

Can you describe a situation, and it could be either related to your modeling or anything, where you were faced with some kind of a challenge that you had to overcome? Yeah. My biggest challenge was when my mom passed away. Not only my biological mom, I was raised by two other moms and they passed away. All three of them passed away in a four year span and it crushed me. Like it was devastating. Like I lost everybody that raised me.

So it was a point in my life where I didn't know where I was going to go. Like, do I just stop modeling altogether? Do I just stop my passion? What do I do? And then you grieve for years and years and you still grieve. But I've learned to not be afraid of flying anymore because I don't really have much fear anymore of anything because I lost everybody that raised me.

So it kind of put a little fire in my butt, too, because I'm able to face my fears more and do more things by myself because we're not always going to have anybody next to you. So my thing is doing more stuff for myself and by myself, like traveling adventures alone, even if it's just like a couple of days alone. But just more solo adventures alone is going to be something that I hope helps me get through a lot of the grieving that I've done throughout the years.

So it's definitely the biggest turn in my life that I've had to overcome. I'm sorry to hear that. I also recently lost my mom. Yeah. Oh, wow. It's the hardest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. And, like, everybody deals with grief differently. And so did you take a break from modeling for a while? I actually did not. No, no, not at all. Not at all. I still kept going. I still kept going because my mom was my biggest supporter she was like,

She was my biggest fan. She loved everything I did, even becoming a nude model. She loved everything.

She went to my first nude model shoot. She was my best friend and supported me through all of that. So having that was just like, you know what? You do what you want to do and love what you want to do and keep doing it. So knowing that she will forever accept what I do, I just keep going. And I'm now working harder and doing more things and traveling more than I've ever thought I would. So, wow, definitely been amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Because your mom wouldn't want you to quit doing what you want.

Not at all. Not at all. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. That's kind of how I feel, too. I'm like, I mean, my mom wasn't as like into my modeling career. Like she was just, you know, happy that I was happy, but I didn't do anything or anything. But I know that like she wouldn't want me to like not do what I love. Exactly. Exactly. Especially being a passion of ours. It's like I want to do this for the rest of my life. Like there's just such

a piece of art to the passion. I just I can't stop giving it up. And then doing photography now, too.

And it's just you can do both sides. I like both sides. So it's fun to be able to do the passion that I've always wanted to dream of doing. You're doing photography as well? Well, I do like a little nature for nature photography. So doing all like location shoots and everything. I've always brought my camera and did my own shoots. I don't do too many people shoots, but I have done a couple of boudoir shoots. But I love photography.

It's fun. It's definitely learning the lighting and everything else is just so fun. That's cool. Over the course of your modeling career, like what would you say the genres when you when you jumped into freelance and away from the agency, what genres of modeling did you do the most initially? And then how has have those genres morphed over the length of your career?

Truthfully, I started out as nude model. I fell in love with the art of the body and watching Sports Illustrated, which is so funny, watching Sports Illustrated paint bikinis on the body and that became art and everything.

I fell in love with that. so when I met up with after the agency and all that weird stuff the people I met she was a nude model and she's like come to the shoot with me and see if you like it and my first nude shoot with my mom there and everything I absolutely fell in love with the deep lighting the shadows It was just everything about it, and I never stopped. And that was the one thing that I didn't know if I was going to keep doing nude modeling because I got into glamour.

I got into everything. I could walk a catwalk.

I can do pretty much everything. But the nude modeling for me is more my passion and more my comfort zone than with crazy fashion stuff. But with the tattoos now, though, it's a little different. Some people don't want the nude model with the tattoos. But for some reason, it keeps working. It keeps working through a lot of the stuff that I keep doing. So I don't want to never give that up. I never thought I'd forever be a nude model, but I love it.

Yeah. So you mentioned that when you were 24, you thought that that might be nearing the end, but then you just kept on going. What made you think that? Probably because back like when I first started, like, I don't know, back in like the 90s, like you didn't really see models go past their 25s, like not too many. I mean, there's barriers that broke down and like you started to see more people in their 20s and 30s.

And that was just not really heard of until like things just got better with age and you don't have to have an age on when to stop. And when I was I was full when I was doing it full time at 27, I was like, wow, I'm 27 and I'm full time doing this right now. OK, let's just keep going. I don't want to stop if we don't we don't feel like we do it like keep going. We're just going until we can't.

That's cool. yeah and I actually the reason I asked that is because I had a similar like thought when I was turning 25 or 26 because I think there was a period of time when model mayhem had when you were searching for models using their search feature the automatic age range was set to 18 to 25 and you would have to like change the drop down menu to expand your search for like older models very true i never used i never used my age my real age on that thing oh really well at

the beginning no because of that that's what was so dumb about that yeah i remember that because i was like 99 and i'm glad that you you were open about your age on the podcast because that's something that like I learned to not ask people how old they are just because some people want to keep it a secret yeah oh for sure oh for sure I didn't really be comfortable with it until I turned 40 and I was like wait, People are like, we are not 40, you're 20 something. I was like,

gosh, I wish. But no, it's this what this is what 40 looks like sometimes. As long as you can keep yourself together and you don't have to look your age, you can still look however you want to look, which is amazing. Yeah, I think I've been conflicted about on my model mayhem or whatever.

Like I'm like oh I want to be honest but like I know that like by average I do look younger than 37 so I don't want to lie about my age on my modeling profile but I wonder if I'm losing work because of that but if I'm losing work because of that then screw those people anyway I don't know that's how I feel too sometimes like that's I think that's where I started to be like okay this is what my real age is because nobody believes me so I'm just like okay.

You remember me whatever you want yeah yeah it's hard on profiles because they do look at 20 somethings and and that's it like a lot of the times you won't get a 30 year old but I know there are photographers that do look for mature women out there that have been in the business longer and actually know what they do or know how to do their shoots better than newer models out there yeah and also like the older you get as a model the more rare you become

because there are not very many experienced models that are like over 40 or over 50 you know what I never even thought about that that's that's I didn't think about that that's true yeah yeah yeah what do you do to keep your youthful appearance oh gosh it's been a battle.

So when you do start reaching for like I don't know it started in the late 30s and 40s like your body just doesn't stay the same I've had a lot of health issues myself so going through surgeries and stuff, it's really hard to stay in shape and keep in shape. My biggest thing is eating healthier now. I've never ate so much.

Good in my life than I do now like I eat all the best things and try to keep this best stuff inside of me now working out I try to work out as much as possible like even on the down days like I love running so running and just doing my normal workouts my yoga and everything too running is hardcore it is but it helps me like helps the mind too for me sometimes yeah so it helps me clear my mind when I run and Washington is very challenging you have a lot of hills yeah that's

true that's the only thing I kind of like a challenge though when I'm working out so I can't be bored that's motivating like so I was in track when I was in junior high and even at that age in junior high running on the track I would get shin splints really yeah yeah I still get shin splints all the time I think that's the only.

Thing that gets really bad on me is the shin splints dang do you run on pavement or yeah yeah yeah I like outside especially in Washington there's so many beautiful areas and really outside my area I can run down to the water which is so nice and being next to water and then run back up and run through the woods if I want to go through the woodsy area so it's nice how are you with the cold I actually don't mind it I don't mind it at all I'm actually one of the models that will be in

a studio and I have to have a window open like I get hot I get really hot so doing like the rain shoots doing snow shoots I can last a few hours doing those until I get cold and then and then I'm cold but as long as I'm good for a couple hours I can I can withstand it I get my mind to think things and think about beaches and I I love the cold it's so fun shooting in the cold that's for sure.

That's also hardcore it's challenging and that's the thing i love the challenge of shoots and everything so i'm not i i like the boring stuff but give me a challenge and i will work that challenge as much as possible i'm glad that you mentioned that because you know as a person who's also been modeling for a long time i've, like learned that if it's too easy, you know, like, you know, lingerie on a hotel bed or whatever, like, I can't just do that all the time.

You know, I have to do something challenging. So I think that that's cool that you've found ways to like, keep modeling interesting because It's 24 years is a long time. It is. It is. And it's hard to, when people do, when I do get hired to do photo shoots in hotels and lingerie, it's like, oh, shoot. What can I do now? Can I do anything interesting? What pose have I not done? Yeah.

But when I'm out on a rock or when I'm out near a tree and stuff like that, I can come up with different poses that it's like, wow, this is fun. Just keep going with whatever you can have nature make into your body. It's just amazing what you can do with the different settings for sure.

Yeah. I was actually just thinking about that when I was at a shoot the other day.

And I could tell that the photographer really liked it when I was doing more like abstract bendy type poses but then every time we did a set change he wanted me to start out with like, lingerie and heels and like necklaces and earrings and all that and I found that the more of those items that I took off like throughout the course of shooting that set the more free I could be in my posing because whoa can't really do a backbend in heels you know you could do yeah.

I agree. I agree. And I think that's another reason why I do like to be a nude model, because it makes me a little more freer in my posing. And it's made it's made some amazing images out there with the different settings. That's awesome. So you said that you're 42 now and you don't want to stop and you're going to keep on going.

You have another job also which supports you like leading up until where you are now have you ever had like waves of like doubt where you're like oh should I quit or should I keep going yeah oh yeah definitely I've actually had getting into like just the regular job industry just a regular doing that was really hard because they're like, oh, you model, you still want to do that? Well, you might want to think about quitting that and just think about working

on your career and working on this and doing that. I was like, but this is my passion. This is my love. This is what keeps me going. Like, this is what makes me get up out of bed. Yeah. So it's like, I just, it will, yeah, I will always keep it with me, even if I do have to stop. Like, I don't ever want to stop, which I do. That's why I do it on the weekends, too. At night, I travel on the weekends. I'll go for a weekend. I'll come back and work.

So I really don't ever want to stop. Yeah, it's been a when people tell you that you have to quit, you shouldn't have to. Like, it should be your decision on when you want to quit something or when you want to change your lifestyle. But yeah, people really didn't want me to keep going for some reason. I don't know why, but a lot of them didn't.

And these are the people that you work with? Yeah, it was not the one, not people that I work with now. But when I was trying to get into the job industry, I would ask for weekends off or I would ask for something off. And they didn't like that because I was doing modeling. And they're like, you should probably just stick with one job. And it's like, no, I can do both. I can do both very well. Wow. Yeah. they wanted to take your freedom yeah a lot yeah.

Have you ever had issues with co-workers about like your modeling photos on the Internet? No, I try to keep those. I try to keep things pretty separate now these days. Like I try to. It doesn't happen all the time, of course, but I try to keep things a little bit separate. But being just in the industry and being up here so long, people know who I am by my tattoos and stuff like that now, too.

But i i try not to keep it a secret and nobody really has said any like where i work now it's they're all very supportive which is awesome that's cool it's not a good spot yeah so i like that like you seem like you just kind of do what you want and you know like what makes you tick and so curious about your tattoos because i know that i've seen some in some pictures but like Describe where all your tattoos on your body are.

Yeah. Most of my arms are... I have one arm that's pretty much just full sleeve. That started when my mom passed away. Before my mom passed away, I had... I had three tattoos. So after my mom passed away, that was my therapy for myself. And my whole right arm is my memorial arm. I have my mom, my grandma, my father, my friend that was murdered, and then my other moms that helped raise me.

I have their names on my arm and the birds for them. And I have the flower garden for them as well as the three bleeding hearts. And then I love sports. So my other arm is a sports arm. My mom's from Pennsylvania. So all the sports are all Pennsylvania sports. You have the Penguins, Pirates, and Steelers. I have world championship rings on my arm now. So I went all out and became, I don't know, just something different.

I wanted something different. It helped me heal emotionally, and it was just a great therapy, and I still keep doing it. I do have, like, my cat of 20 years passed away, so I do have a paw print of him. Yeah, so it's pretty much just my arms, and then I do have a tiger on my leg now, too. He's my favorite one out of the bunch. He's been the newest one, but I do have a beautiful tiger tattoo on my leg.

Cool yeah i love tigers quite a bit yeah well i did have an old one on the back of my on my arm when i was 19 and of course when they get older they look a little weird so my tiger didn't look like a tiger on my on my back so i actually covered that up with a black rose and then i got the tiger put on my leg.

So now it's a beautiful colored tiger that will never fade. Have you ever had a tattoo removed no just cover-ups yeah just cover-ups yeah.

No i don't think i want to i did it once and oh my god i had one on my rib cage that was really big it was like eight inches tall and six inches wide oh my god i didn't know that you know you, i won't go to the whole story but basically a lot of my career when i had that tattoo i was posing to the left because it was just on my right side oh i love that at least you could just hide it a little bit yeah like i ended up falling out of love with the tattoo after

like i no longer believed in the moral of the story for why i got it and then from that point forward it was like okay well I eventually got it removed but the removal process took like over two years and it was exceptionally painful and I wasn't supposed to be in the sun at all and I mean I broke that rule but yeah oh my goodness wow yeah, Crazy. Yeah. And like after you get your first laser session, there's no going back. You have to complete getting it done.

You can't just undo that if you change your body. Yeah. No, you got to keep going. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I'll just keep doing cover ups. I'm in it. I can't get rid of them now. Cool. So there are some photographers that may have a problem with your tattoos.

Tattoos not anymore really like even when i'm doing workshops still and group shoots none of them none of them mine at all which is awesome yeah that's cool yeah i mean a lot of my favorite model friends have tattoos yeah i just it's so nice to be it's more accepted now than it was probably even 10 years ago it's more accepted now which i really like it because i i never thought I would be completely tattooed up either so that's another thing I never thought would happen so.

I will keep doing it yeah I like that the getting the tattoos was your therapy and like all all of those pieces on you are like parts of you and like you know your loved ones that have passed on and stuff yeah yeah that's the thing it's definitely a part of me and a part of them for sure and it's a reminder like especially when I'm traveling like across the country or across the world like I can look down at my arms and I can see everybody still like I don't even need pictures

like I know everybody's still with me and like they're with me on my adventure even though I'm alone that's nice I love that do you have trips coming up this coming year I do I do I actually have one coming up in February. So that's a big one coming up. Well, we've been planning it, but it didn't happen last year. So it's definitely happening this year. I'm going back to Malaysia and then going to Cambodia. Oh, yeah. Awesome. We need to go into Cambodia. So I'm excited.

It's going to be a fun adventure. I'm traveling alone to the place, and then I'll meet my photographer over there. So it's going to be fun. Are you going to shoot in Cambodia? I'm trying to, yes. Yes, I am. Yeah. So I'm doing my research. So every day when I come home from work, I'm doing my research on the best places to shoot. There's different temples and like the clothing to wear that's appropriate. So I'm definitely doing all the research and I cannot wait to get some pictures.

Have you been to Cambodia before? No, I have not. I've been to Malaysia, which I absolutely fell in love with KL there. Like, I just love that city. Cattaloopa is so gorgeous. And, like, no, not on Cambodia. I have not been to Cambodia, but it's been a dream to go to Angkor Wat, which is one of the most biggest religions on the planet, which is so gorgeous and so huge. So it's going to be going to go try to do an adventure over there.

I'm not waiting. I'm asking because I went there. I didn't shoot there, though, sadly. Really? Oh, okay. Did you go to Angkor Wat then? Yes. Okay, nice. Nice. So if I have any questions, I'll ask you. Yeah, it was pretty chill. Like, a lot of times when you're traveling the world, and I mean, this was 2017, so things might have changed now. You never know. But Angkor Wat was, like, super chill.

You could basically walk around. like the tourists there there was no restrictions there's really no fences like you could just walk around and stuff yeah what i thought was so cool i'm like i can shoot there i can shoot there there's nobody over there like just looking at people's videos i was like i i cannot wait yeah interesting okay good to know it's kind of like a blessing and a curse in my opinion because like i like not being restricted but I also know that I'm sure some

tourists aren't going to be totally respectful you know and that's what that's what bothers me traveling to certain places and going to places that there there's people that are not respectful that's for sure and I like to be respectful especially the temples and everywhere you go to yeah that's gonna be fun though I'm excited for you i'm excited that's cool that's cool and you have photographers that will just meet you somewhere and like go shoot in cool places.

Well, this one I met about nine years ago. I've been working with him every year. We at least do one big adventure together. And then we do like little ones throughout the year in the U.S. And then we go somewhere overseas. So each year we pick a different place to go adventure and make some great images and hopefully maybe get some published or not. But we at least try. Yeah. So cool. So over the course of your travels, what are a couple of your favorite places that you've shot?

Probably the Borneo jungle in Malaysia was quite interesting, especially the elements of the heat, the humidity was not easy to shoot. And so it was a nice challenge, which I really liked. I loved shooting everywhere. My other favorite was shooting in Prague. Shooting in Prague at the castle in the morning when nobody was there was so fun to research. And then shooting on the bridge.

There's so many places that I've done research that I try to get there early to make an experience with no tourists.

I try to get there with no tourists. I mean I've visited Prague like on vacation with my family but like oh my god yes oh I love Prague it's one of my favorites so cool you know what's crazy is that like over the years like you know I've traveled you've traveled like over over time it's like you don't just sit there and tell somebody about all the cool places that you've traveled and I haven't really like made a habit of like doing throwback posts

of like this is from my trip to that but like all that stuff happening yeah it's good to do that because yeah it one gets it reminds you too back then that's what I like doing throwbacks and you should yeah should yeah I mean like I've been recently because Instagram has gotten more strict and they're starting to take down posts that I made a long ago I've been going back in time on my timeline and like deleting stuff that

might get my but because I'm going years back into my Instagram post I'm like oh I did that oh I forgot about that shoot oh yeah oh yes. Oh, I love that. But yeah, I've noticed that they've gotten a little stricter, too. Yeah, the world's changing. Yeah, that's why. I won't. Right on. I will still keep going like this. Running around the world naked is fine. Yeah. Have you joined that new Blue Sky app yet?

No but i was i heard somebody talking about that so i was gonna check that out that's yeah yeah there have been so many people saying for years that there's got to be a new app that all the artistic nude people can use and i think that blue sky i think it's one that might actually catch on because like a lot of people that i know have signed up i'm on it and like my my My channel is growing to a decent amount of followers after only having,

I think I've got 900 people following me and I opened it about a week and a half ago. So I would recommend getting it. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. And I feel like I've only heard about it in the last couple of weeks too. So I will definitely check that out just because like there's just so much beautiful art in our stuff that people put in galleries. We put it on our wall. Like, it's such a piece of art that I would love to share more. But it's more so...

They're so forbidden to share any of it. Yeah, it's nice to have a social media. Because, I mean, yeah, I've got Patreon and people subscribe to see my artistic nudes and stuff. But it's nice to share some of them publicly. I agree. I completely agree. Yeah, yeah. That's what I do with my OF pages. That's where all my nudes go. If you really want to see all of them, that's where you go. because I can't post them anywhere else without getting in trouble. Yeah.

And then there's some other places where you could post it, but it doesn't necessarily belong there. You know, or whatever. Exactly. Yeah. Yep, yep. Well, Invy, I've had a really great time doing this interview with you. Is there anything else that you wanted to say before we say goodbye? Oh, I just want to thank you for having me on. This was such a pleasure. Like I was nervous, but like, it was so great to actually talk to you and just like talk about modeling stuff. And like, it's so crazy.

We're not in the same area, but we've been through a lot of the same thing. It's so nice to be comforting knowing we're not alone. Yeah and that's part of why i like doing this podcast because it it's always a good conversation we always have stuff in common yeah no i loved it i loved it no this was such a blast i enjoyed it heck yeah envy well i'll share like links to your. Music.