Miche’le Fontes

What inspired your most recent tattoo?

My last tattoo is of Nefertiti. In a previous relationship the energy was that I was beneath and behind. Queen Nefertiti was the first Egyptian queen to rule beside her King. He looked at her as an equal and rumor was she took over for him after he passed. The tattoo is to remind me that my position holds power and not to let anyone else treat me like it doesn’t.

If your ink could speak, what would it say?

It’d tell the story of a young girl. The little mermaid portrait tells the lesson of sacrifice and what makes it worth it. The butterfly tells the lesson of the inevitability of change. “We have to be willing to change what we are for what we can become.” The koi and lotus flower are reminders to stay pure and beautiful in intention no matter what mud is around me and to stay persistent towards my goals. The phoenix will tell a tale of constant rebirth and ascension.

What would you do with the $25,000?

Honestly, I’m an educator who works in urban schools transitioning them from punitive punishment to restorative practices to dismantle the school to prison pipeline that disproportionately effects my community. I’d love to use that money to start a consulting business to bring that practice and pedagogy around the nation, even the world. Our children need to learn how to take accountability but use it as a bridge to hard conversations, collaborative solution, and always a pathway bac