"Ripping" the tape seems ill-advised. A sharp ceramic craft paper cutting knife or the very tip of a fine-tip Exacto blade work well. Once the tape is cut on one side, the blade slides through it like it's nothing. Zero force required.

Be careful not to insert a blade too far or it may come into contact with conductive components.

Approx. 3/4 of an inch past the bend in the cabling underneath the tape lies the right speaker cable. Beyond this point proceed with extreme caution. Delicate cables and ZIF connectors underneath the tape will be torn or damaged if they aren't separated from the underside of the insulation tape first. Use fingernails or thin-edged tools.

Thank you, very much, for this tip.

At this step, possibly depending on date of manufacture, there may be black silicone present on/around the four screws that mount the display. It needs to be carefully scraped away and the two screw mount holes at the top of the screen pried up and away from the chassis. Between the chassis and the plastic portion of the mounting frame, there is a slim sheet of metal. Be sure to pry this off WITH the mounting frame. It is part of it. DO NOT try to separate it.

There are sensitive display/digitizer cables no less than five inches from the bottom edge of the iPad. Insert the pick further down than this, or deeper than 1mm beyond this point and you risk irreparably damaging these cables.

Three inches is much too far down this side of the iPad to use picks.