Read Issue 29 Now - Featuring the Vivi Sterling... click here now!

http://eliteonlinemag.com/Issue/Issue29/

Well we also have  girls such as Alice La Vie, Emma Ducky, Helen Peta Storey, Helen B, Chloe Brooke, Rebecca Poppy Sullivan and the UK superstar that is Kerri Parker!

Don’t forget the regulars… Plastic Grannies, Chloes Strong is the new Skinny, Jsky, Diary of a Drunk and more comedy…

Issue 25 includes Alysha Nett, Charlotte Louisa Moran, Eve May Valentine, Gemma Stafford, Jade Green, Lauren Houldsworth, Rosy Cherrington, Shantel, Vicky Narni

http://www.eliteonlinemag.com/Issue/Issue26

Issue 25 includes Emma B, Gemma Jones, GIGI Petite, Kat S, Kelli Smith, Kirstie Patterson, Nina Dee and Rosie Beever.

http://www.eliteonlinemag.com/Issue/Issue25

Issue 24 includes Anna Elizabeth, Charlotte Alexander, Collette Von Tora, Faye Edwardes, Mel Clarke, Sophie Weiss and the PICFX girls

http://www.eliteonlinemag.com/Issue/Issue24

Issue 23 includes Chloe Brooke, Crystal Heard, Jessica Jerrard, Kaityln Leigh, Kaye Stacie, Kezzy Harding, Pippa, Poppy, Rach Notonix, Rosie Roff and Sian Sayer

http://www.eliteonlinemag.com/Issue/Issue23

Alysha Nett

Model www.alysha.tumblr.com
Photographer www.toriabrightside.tumblr.com
Assistant Photographer/Videographer www.tishmoonwillow.tumblr.com
Make Up Artist www.cupidlovesme.tumblr.com

In Winter 2011, tattooed beauty Alysha Nett came to London. Toria Brightside and her team managed to catch her the day before she flew home to talk about her ink, inspiration, her adventures in the city and in Paris, and why she loves the English gentleman.

So your last day in London, have you ever been before? No I’ve never been here before, this is my first time over here.

How’ve you found it? I like it a lot. Actually, being over here, it made me miss being home, because even though I’ve never been here it kinda has a familiar feeling – I think it’s because it’s almost a combination of New York and Chicago.

I was wondering, with regards to fashion; fashions are different between here  and in the states, I was wondering if you’d noticed a difference with the fashion photographers that you’ve worked with? Working with the photographers, most of them have actually just requested that I come as I am, and I’ve found that since being over here that I do dress a little different to English girls.

So there’s a bit of American style? Yeah, I dress more like a boy than most girls do… I mean I like to dress like a girl as well but when I travel I don’t necessarily pack my trendiest items because those things are usually uncomfortable and I don’t generally have the time to walk around in my heels, so I pack my flats and my boys clothes. So a lot of people have seemed, especially when I went to Paris, confused by the way that I dress…

I was wondering what you thought of Paris, and what their response was to you – did you fall in love? Yeah I did love it there; it was absolutely beautiful. It was very surreal being there; it brought me to tears a few times. It’s a huge thing, being from a small town in Kansas… you know I grew up in a town with 8,000 people? It’s crazy to know that I was in Paris, and that I took myself there. It was so surreal I can’t even describe it. The fashion here is great though – the vintage stores are ten times better than America. Plus the men over here just have so much better style, they kind of have that gentleman thing going on…

Is that not something they have going on in the US? It is… but it’s harder to find.

Outside of the big US cities, is fashion completely different due to America being such a big place? Exactly, as soon as you leave the big cities it’s hard to find that style that I swoon over. I just want to push a boy into a store and make him come out in Ralph Lauren head to toe haha.

Like an English gentleman then? Exactly.

I’ve noticed you’ve dabbled in photography and you’ve always spoke of a fascination with fashion and beautiful women ,and an interest in getting involved; did that inspire you to get involved with modelling, or did being behind the lens make you consider being on the other side in the future? Yeah, I remember being a kid and my grandmother brought me a camera and I would take pictures of out of focus flowers etc but I’ve always been interested in the modelling aspect, the beautiful women. I used to have a notebook with all my designs I wanted to be a fashion designer, it was bedazzled, and had Britney Spears collages all over it…

Dreambook? Yeah pretty much.

So you think it’s something you’ll do in the future? Stay involved in the industry? Absolutely, modelling for me is more of a platform. I’ve just been working really hard the past year and a half to build a really strong fan base so that I can focus on future ventures, and have people that will support what I’m doing. Photography is something that… well, it’s fun to take pictures of pretty girls. It’s not for a perversion, it’s more to make a girl feel pretty; it’s just nice to take a photograph and make someone feel really pretty. I look at things which inspire me and it’s definitely not identical to what I shoot, because things that inspire me are a bit rawer and shot more from a male perspective. They’re not ethereal, and filled with harsh light and raw emotions. But what I really like to shoot is pretty and pink and purples.

How do you feel about the internet giving people an anonymous voice? And how you deal with negative people? And do your fans outweigh haters? Well, it was my choice to put myself online, I put myself out there, and it’s not that I deserve what I get, but you have to take the bad with the good and you can’t get discouraged by that. If somebody is not willing to tell me who they are, then I don’t really care about their opinion. If somebody were to come up to me in the street and voice their opinion to me I probably still wouldn’t care, but I’d at least have respect for the person, for not being a coward. But I do get a lot more positive feedback than negative, so that’s always good.

It’s obvious that you’re comfortable with your body, not just with regards to angles in modelling but with regards to being comfortable within your own skin as some of your own shoots don’t involve clothing, did you have any insecurities when you were growing up? Actually growing up I was really shy, I never change in front of my parents; if my mother accidentally walked in I’d be horrified!

Are you parent supportive of what you do? My mother is very supportive, my father    to an extent but I think, like any dad, he is a bit “hmm.”  My mother’s been with me the whole way… I’ve been doing it for a while, and I didn’t start out doing any sort of nudity whatsoever. I was actually shooting for a year and a half before I did anything like that, and they really didn’t want me to… but in the end I’m an adult,  and I’ve made my own decisions since I was 18 years old. I don’t ask my parents for anything, so while their opinion matters, I know that the end result will be something that makes them proud so I just focus on that. Not that I’m comparing myself to a top model, but every top model has nude photos, I just don’t see anything wrong with it.

Is there anything you’d say to people with insecurities? There’s always something you can find about yourself that you love, something that’s beautiful, everybody’s beautiful in their own skin – focus on the good points.

I want to talk about your new tattoo, Jason Smith? Has that been in the pipe line for a while? It has, him and I have been discussing doing a collaboration together.

Did you design it together? Yes -  I’m not an artist or an illustrator in that sense, I just approach them with ideas and tell them what I’m interested in. I told him I wanted to do… I was thinking of a travel piece, luggage and maps and things like that, so when I turned up he had something great drawn for me to document a part of me. He did a really great job; he knew exactly where I wanted to go with it and what I was interested in putting into it.

So it’s about travel, which is one of your passions. Or does it have to be? It started as a passion but it’s definitely exhausting at this point, probably a little overkill. But it’s still wonderful; I don’t take it for granted and I don’t complain about it because I consider myself very fortunate to do it in the first place.

Is it different people art that you have on your body? I have a lot of different artists, my main artists is in Witchita – Kansas. His name is Raul Tanguma – he did my back piece, my arm, my stomach – all my main things, which I’m most known for. As for my smaller pieces; I’ve had work done in New York, Tennessee and L.A – also here.

Are you happy with varying the artist? You know, when I first started getting work done I wanted to be strictly Raul, he was the only one. He will probably always be my favourite… he has a special place, because he totally understands what I like – he gets me, so I’ll always get work done by him – once I got my first piece done by someone else I began to realise the collector aspect of it, I guess it’s almost like collecting art. So it’s fun to have different pieces, by different people, forever.

Photographically I think your back tattoo and the top of your ribs photograph as if they accentuate feminine curves, was that your intention? I think placement is very important when you get tattooed, and I like to get things that accentuate different muscles and curves on my body so that it looks good.

Do you get the idea first or the place or does it depend? It kinda depends, I mean like now I know there are places I’d like to get tattooed but I don’t know what yet, so they’re not tattooed yet. But sometimes it can be inspired by someone else’s; maybe I’ll see a girl with a tattoo in a spot that I really like, so I’ll consider that spot…then I’ll brainstorm, and if something comes to me then I’ll go from there.

With regards to nudity, has there always been a line that you’d draw? Do you put things in categories of how they’d be perceived? Absolutely, I’ve turned down work before because it’ wasn’t something I wanted to take my brand to, because I see myself as a brand. I have a bigger picture, and I work with bigger clients like Intel and Etnies so I have to think of that stuff now, and what they wouldn’t appreciate. Say I was doing something that was really suggestive – I’m not against that, it would just have to be for the right project. If Michael Donovan or Ellen von Unwerth was shooting, that would be ok because I could trust that their work would turn out beautiful and not be misinterpreted.

So you’re line is art? Yes, in a sense. I’ve never done full nudity, and I don’t like to say that I’d never do it because if it was the right project… I’ve seen lots of beautiful models doing full nudity that you don’t even notice, and to me that’s what’s important. I don’t really like being nude for the sake of being nude…

So you rely on your own artistic judgement as well as that of the people you’re working with? I trust my gut, I always trust my gut. If I have a bad feeling about something then I won’t do it; and I have no problems not doing something if I don’t want to. Once you do something out of obligation, then you’re kind of compromising yourself as a person and I’m not comfortable with doing that. Although it might make a quick buck, I think, how would I feel about myself afterwards? I can’t imagine what I would go through – wondering why would I do that? It’s like writing in ink, it’s permanent, there’s nothing you can do about it once it’s written – all I can do is try my best to pose accordingly and make sure what I’m doing represents me.

Your modelling has spanned so many genres, from fashion to artistic nude – where do you see yourself heading in the future? Would you continue to collaborate and expand on what you’re already doing, or do you see it, now that you have done a lot, leaning in a particular direction? Just because my passions in general are styling and clothing, I’ve always been inspired by people’s personal style as opposed to high fashion. While I love high fashion, I know that that’s not realistic for me, and I am a realist. I’m definitely interested in being involved in street wear, street style or – the design aspect.

That possibly is more suited to you; with regards to height and other measurements… Well yeah exactly, so I don’t really know if there is a genre for that, personally I’m not really sure that I fit in anyway because I’m not alternative for the Alt people, but I’m not high fashion enough for the high fashion people, so I try to brand myself more as a personality over anything else.

So it’s almost like a new wave of models -  what I’ve noticed is that more and more actresses and recognizable personalities are on the covers of magazines instead of models, because models just aren’t getting across their personalities. I thought that was a mistake – do you agree? Yeah definitely, I’d like to branch into television, more things like writing and style and designing, everything… my goals are to be photographed by brilliant photographers and be in famous magazines, but I know that won’t happen simply as a model, so I just have to get famous!

You’re doing pretty good! My goals to get famous so I can do the things that I really want to do.

So rely on your personality and be true to yourself, because that way, you’ll never slip up, and and up with people knowing something genuine. Exactly. It’s hard enough to be myself, I can’t imagine having two personalities, it’d be really difficult.

Questions written for Toria Brightside by Ezra Tren-Humphries

Favourite place in London so far? I don’t know! Most of my experiences have been with food!

Best cup of tea? The best cup of tea, most of the tea I’ve had was at home, but I did have some tea we went to Southbank a few days ago that’s when I had my first cup of proper tea, it tasted like green tea with honey. Milky, with two sugars.

What’s the most bizarre sight you’ve seen over here? Um nothing’s really that crazy over here to be honest.

More crazy in the states? Yeah, but then I thought it was quite bizarre over on Southbank to have this American style Micky Mouse in this full blown red, white and blue outfit – thought that was a little strange.

Who’s your favourite author? I don’t read, it’s not that I don’t read it’s just that I usually just read articles and things like that so I can’t really have a proper author because it’s been years since I last read a book.

You’re tattoos show a clear interest in alternative culture…why did you choose that path for yourself? Rather than ‘alternative’ as a genre, I think we mean non-standard. I’m not standard, so I guess I am alternative. When I was in high school I just discovered music, I grew up in a really small town and I just discovered rock music.

Story of all our lives! (laughs from the team) As silly as it sounds the birth of myspace helped me see people in L.A and New York that were amazing to me… like wow look at her… blue hair… or whatever! It just had a huge influence, and I just wasn’t afraid of it anymore.

What’s your favourite tattoo? I really love my back.

It’s my favourite too! Was it painful? YES! (laughs from team) It was really painful, but I just really love it.