MARRIAGE STATS
Married: October 20, 2007
Kids: 0
Hometown: Yarmouth Port, MA
Notable: Mark, 31, and Marlo Corliss, 29, are as fun as their tattoos. The Corlisses have known each other for more than a decade, giving love a second go-around on a chance encounter after being out of contact. The couple currently owns a tattoo shop that Mark opened nine years ago—up the block from where the Corlisses now live—and they've recently added a clothing boutique inside where Marlo is able to take advantage of her extensive sales experience. The Corlisses can currently be seen appearing on ABC’s "Here Come the Newlyweds."

[1] How did you meet?
Mark: We met in 1996, dated off and on for a few years. Then I walked into a store 10 or 11 years later and Marlo was working there. She got my phone number from one of the salesman and called me…

Marlo: No I didn’t! I’ll [tell] her. When he walked into the dealership, it was like 12 years after I had seen him. We had dated for three years [before]. It was so weird. It was totally fate. That’s what makes the whole thing good. For him to walk in and see me 12 years later, randomly. And then, [after] our first date, we were together non-stop for three months, then he proposed to me.

[2] Why did you both decide to be part of the show?
Marlo: A friend of his told us that they were casting for some sort of newlywed show and that we were a riot and we should try out for the show. We went on the website, and we’d never seen an episode and we were kind of blindsided. We started to look at the questions and I was like, "Fill this out, this is awesome." Then out of the blue, three months later, they called me at work and asked us to come out to California.

[3] What were some of the challenges of being on the show?
Marlo: We were together 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I learned a lot I didn’t know about him. There were a lot of positives and negatives because we were together all the time. But we learned so much from the other couples. It made me realize that some of the bad stuff that goes on in the beginning of a marriage is really normal. We’re friends, we pick at each other, we laugh. We didn’t have many challenges, I know him very well.

[4] How did the show affect your relationship with each other? Did you learn anything new about each other on the show?
Marlo: Oh yeah. It was uplifting and it was an experience that I’ll never forget. Just to see him interact and to see him do stuff in a different light. Both of us are very hardworking and we’re very strong headed and passionate people. So the two of us, even in a [competitive] atmosphere…to see us on the same side when we both work so hard in the field, it was crazy. I learned a lot from each couple—they had a little bit to contribute that I didn’t know. And it made us reflect on ourselves so it made us learn a lot.

Mark: We learned to work together a lot. We were just pulled from our lives, we didn’t have to worry about money or working or the dogs. We had nothing to worry about except each other. So we really learned to work together as a team and just try to communicate better.

[5] What kinds of things did you learn from the other couples on the show?
Marlo: Some of the couples were different ages, some had met and just got married a month or two [before], some of them have known each other and have been together for 12 years. So a lot of the different stages they are in made me look at me and Mark—I’ve known him forever, I feel like. I went through college [with him]—probably our biggest growing years. And seeing him as a younger kid and now as a grown man, and then looking at these people who are very [early] in their marriages; it just made me learn that all the things that we went through are normal because you never know when you get married the first time. It’s an experience and you see things totally in a different light. And never mind that each personality is different.

Mark: I guess every couple is learning about each other just like we were. Seeing each other get a little more comfortable in their own situation. So it’s fun, you see that you’re not alone. Everybody’s just trying to figure it out; to learn to live with each other, the pros and cons. And I say, have a good time with it.

[6] Are you nervous about things you’ve said or done on the show now that it’s airing?
Mark: There are certain things. It was a while ago. Sometimes, its like, what did I say, was I stressed out, but for the most part, we were just ourselves so not really.

[7] How do you keep your relationship and your work life balanced?
Mark: Definitely working together and being married is a challenge, but we have a lot of fun with it. We’re a fun couple. We get along great, we’re best friends. It helps because I’m an extremely busy tattoo [artist], and Marlo helps my life. She helps keep me in line, she helps me make sure everything is done properly. She takes the pressure off of me, so at the end of the day I’m happier.

Marlo: I was uneasy about the whole situation because I was in such a competitive field before. I was a sales manager for high line dealership and he is such a successful tattoo artist. He’s booked three to four months in advance. And he’s not a conceited guy—I didn’t even know how good of an artist he was until I started working there. I learned so many positive things about him, just on the job. I feel I even him out. He does not do well under pressure. He paces himself and he’s very quiet. I’m the opposite. I do awesome under pressure. I can’t have a job where I procrastinate, where I have a lot of time. I need a pressure environment. So I think we even each other off.

It’s hard to be owners and not husband and wife in the work field. [Before the show] we didn’t work together and when [we] came back, he said, "Don’t go back. Just help me, I need your help." Since then, I swear, because of the show his communication skills have gotten so much better. Before, he would just smile and nod and you wouldn’t really know if that’s how he feels because I’m used to saying how I feel. And now he’s learned to communicate a lot more and say how he feels.