Through affirming the cut as a “separating mechanism” we can imagine how power structures decide which bodies are given value and which are discarded. Thinking through the cut, stitch and repair creates a space to consider how violent actions give rise to boundaries and form power structures that sever relations, othering those who “don’t make the cut”. Such actions inevitably further a generative sequence of violence. Complexity arises through the assumption that all acts of violence stand in opposition to acts of care, challenging us to consider where and how violent actions and acts of care overlap or even inform each other. Reparation can only emerge when the raw threads of violence and acts of repair are allowed to remain visible. Although the distress of the open wound is acknowledged, a state of openness is required to hold the contradictions, confusion and rejection that also compose a state of potential, necessary in developing new possibilities of understanding.