Re-Move performance at Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe NM

laser tattoo removal machine, consent forms and questionnaire, volunteers

Nicholas Galanin & Merritt Johnson

Re-Move is a free clinic specifically geared toward removing “tribal tattoos” and “native inspired tattoos” in addition to offering tattooed lines of separation and their removal.

Lines that qualify include but are not limited to: International border lines, state lines, the line between men, and the line between people and land. 

Skin is the tissue we are born in, we experience pain and pleasure and violence through it. Skin is the tissue used to define, constrain, label and separate us.

Tattoo uses the surface tissue or our bodies to display knowledge, ignorance, desire, connection, love, allegiance and stories. 

Tattoo has been practiced by people all over the world to identify, adorn, and designate us in every direction from celebration and honor to degradation and ownership. 

Colonization and religious conversion attempted to forcibly remove the practice of tattoo from Indigenous cultures.

The rampant tattooing of “tribal/Native inspired” tattoos is continued colonization of culture through commodification and fictionalization. 

Re-Move highlights removal of culture, and removes divisions damaging to culture today. We extend our services to cover the removal of lines that damage culture for all of us, Indigenous and settler, human and non-human. 

Examples of tattoos offered to make visible lines of separation in order to remove them:

Key for Sample Tattoo lines of separation

1-1 line of separation between United States and Mexico (large)

1-2 line of separation between United States and Mexico (medium)

1-3 line of separation between United States and  Mexico (small)

2-1 line of separation between Alaska and Canada (large)

2-2 line of separation between Alaska and Canada (medium)

2-3 line of separation between Alaska and Canada (small)

2-4 line of separation between Unites State and Canada (large)

2-5 line of separation between Unites State and Canada (medium)

2-6 line of separation between Unites State and Canada (small)

3-1 line of separation between immigrant and non-immigrant (North)

3-2 line of separation between immigrant and non-immigrant (West)

3-3 line of separation between immigrant and non-immigrant (East)

3-4 line of separation between immigrant and non-immigrant (South)

4-1 line of separation between men and women (large)

4-2 line of separation between men and women (medium)

4-3 line of separation between men and women (small)

4-4 line of separation between mothers and their children (large)

4-5 line of separation between mothers and their children (medium)

4-6 line of separation between mothers and their children (small)

4-7 line of separation between fathers and their children (large)

4-8 line of separation between fathers and their children (medium)

4-9 line of separation between fathers and their children (small)

4-10 line of separation between people and other animals (large)

4-11 line of separation between people and other animals (medium)

4-12 line of separation between people and other animals (small)

4-13 line of separation between people and land (large)

4-14 line of separation between people and land (medium)

4-15 line of separation between people and land  (small)

4-16 line of separation between people and water (large)

4-17 line of separation between people and water (medium)

4-18 line of separation between people and water (small)

5-1 line of separation between young and old (large)

5-2 line of separation between young and old (medium)

5-3 line of separation between young and old (small)

5-4 line of separation between cisgender and transgender (large)

5-5 line of separation between cisgender and transgender (medium)

5-6 line of separation between cisgender and transgender (small)

5-7 line of separation between homosexual and heterosexual (large)

5-8 line of separation between homosexual and heterosexual (medium)

5-9 line of separation between homosexual and heterosexual (small)

6-1 line of separation between income brackets (large)

6-2 line of separation between income brackets (medium)

6-3 line of separation between income brackets (small)

6-4 line of separation between black and white (large)

6-5 line of separation between black and white (medium)

6-6 line of separation between black and white (small)

7-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-6 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-7 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-8 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-9 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-10 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-11 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-12 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-13 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-14 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-15 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

7-16 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-6 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-7 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-8 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-9 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-10 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

8-11 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-6 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-7 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-8 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

9-9 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-6 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-7 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-8 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

10-9 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-6 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-7 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

11-8 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-6 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

12-7 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

13-1 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

13-2 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

13-3 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

13-4 line of separation between Indigenous and settler

13-5 line of separation between Indigenous and settler