about.

Tamara Santibañez (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, New York). They come to tattooing from self-taught DIY beginnings, going on to gain over sixteen years of professional experience in acclaimed New York tattoo shops, including the legendary Saved Tattoo. Tamara is author of Could This Be Magic? Tattooing as Liberation Work (Afterlife).  They hold a master’s degree in Oral History from Columbia University, focusing on tattooing and incarceration in their fieldwork. Santibañez has taught as a volunteer arts instructor at Rikers Island and with Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Bedford Hills Correctional. They have worked with the Women’s Prison Association and Resonance Tulsa to organize tattoo cover-up services for survivors of trafficking and women impacted by the carceral system, and with Personal Ink to cover mastectomy scars for breast cancer survivors. Most recently, they have co-authored a paper with Scout Silverstein on tattooing’s positive impact on body image within recovery from disordered eating, supported the Rikers Public Memory Project through interviewing and audit editing for their archive, and completed certification as a provider of the NADA five-point ear acupuncture protocol pioneered by Dr. Mutulu Shakur and the Lincoln Detox Center.