Women in the Chin State tribes of Myanmar have been tattooing unusual tattoos on their faces for hundreds of years to make themselves look hideous and avoid being kidnapped. In Myanmar’s Chin State, people still practice ancient practices from the past. Many girls have had tattoos on their faces to avoid kidnapping and as a […]
Women in the Chin State tribes of Myanmar have been tattooing unusual tattoos on their faces for hundreds of years to make themselves look hideous and avoid being kidnapped.
In Myanmar’s Chin State, people still practice ancient practices from the past. Many girls have had tattoos on their faces to avoid kidnapping and as a kind of beauty for the past 1000 years.
The girls who used to tattoo their faces every day have now grown into old women who are proud of their unique culture.
The origins of this habit are still a mystery, and no one knows for sure. Locals, on the other hand, believe it derives from the abduction of women.
In Chin State, each tribe will have a unique face tattoo. Women of the Dai tribe tattoo black circles on their faces, whereas women of the Yindu tribe tattoo stripes from top to bottom, and women of the M’uun tribe tattoo the letters P or D on their faces and the letter Y on their foreheads.
According to legend, there was once a king who came to Chin today and was so taken with the beauty of the girls that he kidnapped one of them and made her his bride. As a result, many elders have opted to employ tattoos to lessen the beauty of females in order to prevent kidnappings.
This custom has persisted for nearly a millennium and facial tattoos have become an integral element of women’s identity in Chin State. Many men in Chin state tribes have a unique tradition in which they regard facial tattoos as a manifestation of a woman’s beauty and refuse to marry girls who do not have tattoos on their faces.
People in the past combined a concoction to make ink, then tattooed with thorns. “I got my face tattooed when I was 12 years old, and my face hurt for 5 days,” said Mrs. Daw Ngai Pai, 72, of the M’uun tribe. She didn’t understand why she had to at the time it was just tradition and all girls her age had to go through the tattooing process. Her daughter, Daw Ngai Pai, on the other hand, does not have tattoos on her face like her mother. She believes that it is possible that young people do not find it as attractive as the older generation.
Grandma Ya Shew recalls the sensation of a swollen face after obtaining a tattoo. She stated, “For about a week, my face was bloated. My mother predicted that with those tattoos, she would find a suitable husband.” Unlike their elders, many young people in Chin state do not find face tattoos attractive, but they are proud of their grandmothers who have unique features.
Photographer Marco Vendittelli, 32, from Italy, traveled across Myanmar’s Chin State to capture ladies with live face tattoos. Many people told this photographer that they tattoo their faces to make them hideous in order to prevent being kidnapped. However, some argue that face tattoos are merely a means of identifying which tribe a person belongs to and distinguishing between tribes.
