04 October 2009

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"


That paraphrase of Plato's longer aphorism would certainly apply to the Mursi and Suri tribes of Ethiopia, who use lip plates as a form of body modification.
Every woman crafts her plate by herself and takes pride in including some ornamentation. A final diameter of about 8 to max about 16cm. Note, after the wedding, many stop the use of the lip plate, and the lip will shrink and wrinkle, because the skin is too big. Only vain women or the women in a harem compete for the biggest lip plate after the wedding.

Photo found at E-l-i-s-e.

2 comments:

  1. I know several people who gauged their ears up to an inch or over and at that point you've got to be pretty careful to avoid tears or blowouts (where the hard scar tissue ends up being pushed out of the hole and sticks out. It's amazing that they can do this.

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  2. i think her eyes are stunning if it means anything

    ReplyDelete

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