“I do like Tupac. I dance. I don’t go to school, but I graduated from school. I just went to Everest for medical assisting, but I’m going to go back next year for special needs teaching. I have a brother who has Down Syndrome. I just really want to be like part of the world and help out in whatever way I can. So I figured teaching was a good way to start.
I have seven tattoos. This one is my favorite. I don’t really – I guess I don’t have any like, emotional attachment to anything that has to do with [Dia de los Muertos]. It’s just my favorite look. I do it for Halloween every year. It’s just my favorite thing ever. I’m just fascinated with Day of the Dead and stuff like that. I think it’s just – I don’t know. People imitating … like their face paint imitating a skeleton … Like it looks scary, but the whole idea of it is celebrating the people that you love.
I have a dove and a peace sign. I love love. I love happiness. I have a quote. It says “The past is only the future with the lights on.” It’s actually from a song, but it just, it really means a lot to me. You never know what’s in the future, but don’t dwell on the past either, you know. What’s in the past is in the past, and you gotta look forward to the future.
Um, what else. I have a rose here. And this one, well my middle name is Rose, so I mean, I don’t know, I guess that’s why I got it.
I wanted tattoos first when I was really little. I was like, ‘Wow, those look cool. They have, like, paintings on them all the time.’ But now I just, I like it because it’s a different way of self-expression. I mean, I don’t have very many yet, I guess, but I feel like with people with a lot of tattoos, you can kinda see what kind of person they are, just by seeing their arms, their legs, or whatever. If I could, I would have a tattoo everywhere.
Next, I have a girl space right here, and it’s all in a traditional, I guess, style. It’s like a tiger that goes with it, and I wanna get that one next. I don’t know what the words I’m looking for to describe it. Well, I mean the tiger is just for – I don’t want to say fierceness, but I guess. Just independence and like, bravery. Because when I was younger, I got bullied a lot, and I was really outcast. And now I’m like really starting to become who I am, and I don’t care, and I’m just independent. Love me or hate me, I’m Mallory, and this is who I am. So like tattoos, like her and the tiger, I guess the meaning behind them – that’s who I want to be. Just independent, and brave, and strong. I don’t care about anything but me.
Really, [the confidence] started after I graduated high school, and I went to Everest for the medical assisting thing. Because I was never good at school in high school, and then when I went to Everest, I graduated at the top of my class. So that is what was like, you know, when I stopped caring about people talking about me, like I did better for myself. Those people don’t matter. So really, right now, I only have to worry about me. So once I got that into my head and didn’t have to worry about other people – like what they thought of me or saw me as – it was just, ‘Hey. It’s me!'”
Excerpt may be edited for clarity.