Scars for life: extreme body modifications

What’s the worst that comes to mind when you hear body modification? Tattoos? Ear piercing? Think again! It’s not just a passing hipster fad, it’s religion, it’s ceremony, it’s a piece of living art!

Subdermal implant

When Frank Sintara sang I’ve Got You Under My Skin, we’re sure he wasn’t talking about it literally. But there are people out there who do take it seriously enough to insert things under their epidermis. A silicon or Teflon material is placed under the skin, therefore allowing the body to heal, creating a raised design is called subdermal implant.

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A fairly new form of modification, it originated in 1994 with artist Steve Haworth.

Scarification

It is simply aesthetics that gives the “crocodile” people of Papua New Guinea’s Sepik region, several Aboriginal tribes in northern Australia, the Nuer tribe of Sudan and the Karo people of Ethiopia a reason to inflict scars on the body of their boy to make out a man out of him. The scars are made by cutting the skin in a repeating geometric pattern and then rubbing ash or acidic juice in the wound for a lasting scar.

Lip plate

In existence since 8,700 BC, the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia is the only tribe left in the world right now which actively practices this grotesque technique. According to the ritual, for six months to a year before a girl is to be married, a small incision is made in the middle of her bottom lip and a stick is put in. With time, larger disks are inserted. The final plates are generally between three to eight inches and most women have to remove their lower front teeth to accommodate them. It is believed that the larger the disc, the more sexually mature the woman!

Neck rings

The Kayan women of Myanmar and Thailand practice a form of modification where they have to wear brass coils around their neck. The reason? To make them less attractive and protect them from becoming a slave. Kids start wearing the rings from the age of five and new rings are added with time. Each ring weighs a little over two kilos!

Myth: These women have elongated necks. Reality: The collarbone is deformed and with each ring, the rib cage shrinks into itself.

Nose plugs

The Apatani tribal women living in Ziro valley are considered the most beautiful among the rest of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. So beautiful that the locals had to make their women look unattractive by piercing wooden plugs into their noses at an early age to prevent them from getting kidnapped. The tradition was quite prevalent in the 1980s, but the younger generation has chosen to abandon the idea.

Ear stretching

It’s impossible to say when and where ear stretching actually began. From the Masai tribes in Kenya to the Huaorani tribe in the Amazon basin, they have been doing it since time immemorial. Why? Religion, coming of age ceremonies, warding off the evil eye, sexual enhancement and physical beauty are some common motivations.

From the February 2016 issue of FHM India.