Skin Removal

What is skin removal?

Skin removal is a method of body modification through scarification. It involves removing sections of skin and letting the body heal (and sometimes, irritating the wound during healing). It is effective for both large areas and fine detail. The goal is to have defined, visible scars, but generally to avoid keloid scarring. See some examples of our work, or work by others who really know what they're doing.

Why might someone do this?

Scars make pain, strength, and intentions visible. They can commit you to a course of action, as well as mark significant events, shifts, or things you wish to carry with you always. They're hot and they look pretty! They let you say "I dealt with getting my skin peeled for multiple hours, I can handle this." It's a really cool way to exercise the capabilities of our bodies towards our own ends.

What's the deal with this website?

There has been precious little information online about how to do this process - until now! Collected here is everything we've learned as we've read, taught ourselves, experimented, and consulted with various knowledgable beings. Try what we've written, and write back to us what you learn! Note: we've got a modest backlog of un-uploaded notes as of Jan 14, 2025. I'll remove this note once we're current.

Massive disclaimer

The information on this site is true to the best of my knowledge. I have endeavored to clearly delineate the limits of my understanding. I've tried to get input from beings who know more than me. However, it is worth stating clearly here: I have no formal medical or scarification training. (I'd really like to get both. Any of y'all taking apprentices?) I have not consulted with any "formally trained" scarification artists (though I'd love to). There are things I've got heinously wrong, less-than-ideal procedures, and unknown/unstated risks. Our process has had significant changes for each procedure we've done; it's not stable yet. It's very possible to seriously injure someone, or end up with bad aesthetic results. Proceed accordingly.

*Nerd voice* what's your documentation strategy?

In an effort to improve this documentation, I'm trying to implement some of the ideas of Diataxis and the Seven-action Documentation model. If stuff seems organized weird, that's probably why.