Nipinet Landsem is an Anishinaabe, Michif, and mixed-european two-spirit artist, tattooer, and muralist. They are a first degree descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, with family roots in Belcourt, North Dakota and Winnipeg, Manitoba. They grew up just outside Imnížaska Othúŋwe (St Paul) near the St Croix, or jiibayaatigo-ziibi, and currently live in Bdeóta Othúŋwe (Minneapolis), ten minutes’ walk from misi-ziibi, the Mississippi River. These rivers and the urban Indigenous communities of the Twin Cities inform their approach to art, community, and their tattooing practice.

One of the first things they learned when engaging with any kind of traditional art form was how everything in their culture touches everything else— no practice is a silo, whether it be food sovereignty, medicine, or art. Their main practice is tattooing, but in order to create work their relatives would be proud to wear, they are required to have some familiarity with many other things: plant medicines, animals, traditional art forms, traditional foods, the landscapes of their culture and their language. Familiarity is gained by participation and hands on creation, and Nipinet has taken the opportunity to learn as much as they can throughout their time as an artist. They are familiar with ledger art, parfleche painting, hide tanning, and beadwork styles, and spend much of their free time cultivating and harvesting traditional plant medicines, practicing Michif and Anishinaabemowin, and collaborating with other artists. 

Tattooing is Nipinet’s primary medium, but they have been an artist their entire life and began illustrating professionally in 2012. In 2017, they completed a machine tattooing apprenticeship at Art ‘n’ Soul Tattoo and Gallery in Madison, WI and have been tattooing full time now for seven years.

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