Maison Close lingerie; Topshop jewelry.

Levy Tran is a regular girl—a girl you’d see in a grocery store, at the mall, or at the gym. She’s the girl next door. But when she gets in front of a camera, something fantastical happens.

Around the same time we were casting women—Levy among them—to be featured in the Sailor Jerry calendar, The Chive, a popular men’s blog, received a black-and-white picture of a cute (anonymous) tattooed girl, and requests poured in with people asking who she was. A reader quickly identified Levy, and The Chive ran more photos, noting that the images “torched up the internet.” Not long after, she and photographer John Agcaoili uploaded a short video of Levy messing around and dressing up, called simply “Bored.” In 15 days it had more than 33,000 views. Neither of those affirmations went to Levy’s head.

“I heard about the INKED Sailor Jerry calendar but I never thought that I would be in it,” Levy gushes. “Then my manager at work suggested I go out for it and I figured it would be pretty cool but that I wouldn’t win. But here I am. I can’t believe it!”

Even more unbelievable is that Levy works as an embalmer (we said she was a regular girl, but we never said she was run-of-the-mill). “When I tell people that they mostly freak out. But I think the job is fascinating and rewarding,” she says. “Funerals are important to people, and I like getting hugs from the family for their appreciation of my work on their tough day.” Unrelated to her job, Levy swears, her favorite tattoo is her zombie piece. —Anja Cadlek