Comment on BG Tutorial 1: Caution tape by antichange

The layer menu should be attached to your GIMP window, at the bottom, as one of the tabs. If not, look at the bottom section, and click the arrow pointing left at the top right corner of the bottom section (below the boxes that show the foreground and background colors). Go to add tab -> layers. Yay!

If you cant see/the bottom section is missing, go to the top of the GIMP window, click file -> dialogs -> layers. And there it is. To attach to to the bottom, drag the word "layers" on the window to the bottom of the GIMP window where there is a tiny/skinny bar on the bottom.

Sorry if its confusing! I'll show you a screenshot if necessary :]