Jessenia Alvarez

Connect What inspired your most recent tattoo?

I saw the mandala in visions long before my grandmother passed. appearing in breath-work, dreams, stillness. But days before she joined the ancestors, she described the same unfolding pattern. It stopped me cold. That’s when I knew: this was a message carried by spirit, passed between us. I’ve had alopecia since I was eight. The nape I once hid is now sacred ground. The mandala marks not loss—but lineage, healing, and return.

If your ink could speak, what would it say?

I am the voice of your lineage Jessenia. Bantu blood, Hopi breath, warrior bone. I live where silence once hid your truth. I do not cover, I reveal. I am your grandmother’s vision, your childhood ache, your sacred unfolding. You were never meant to fit in, you were meant to remember. Grief shaped me. Spirit placed me. I do not speak in ink, I speak in ceremony. You are not broken. You are the prayer they whispered for generations.

What would you do with the $25,000?

As a trauma-informed coach and meditation teacher, I would create spaces where people—especially those long unseen—can come home to themselves. Grief circles, story lodges, breath work, ritual, and coaching rooted in ancestral wisdom. Offering more than support—remembrance. We don’t need more fixing. We need sacred witnessing. I would use the funds to offer that refuge. A place to unfold. A place to rise.