Portraits of tattooed Chin women of Myanmar

Sign of beauty: Facial tattoos traditionally seen as a sign of beauty by minority tribes in Myanmar

Beauty, they say, lies in the eyes of the beholder. It also lies in what tradition holds as a sign of beauty. The Muun, Magan and Chin tribes of remote and mountainous north-western Myanmar (Burma) consider tattoos a sign of beauty.

According to legend, the custom began when an ancient king tried to make slaves of the women. The inkings were first intended to repel incomers and avoid their women from being stolen by Burmese kings. Over time, the tattoos have evolved to become symbols of strength and beauty: reflecting nature — especially the animal and plant Kingdom — and the animist beliefs of the tribe.

Each ethnic minority tribe has their own distinct patterns, and with it, their own distinct story to depict. The village I visited was in the Arakan (Rakhine) state inhabited by a Chin tribe of old women (facial tattooing is a dying tradition amongst the tribes), whose distinct pattern was spider webs.

Spider web pattern facial tattoos amongst the Chin tribes of Arakan state

3 hours by boat from Mrauk-U in Arakan (Rakhine) state along the Lay Myo river, the village is nothing but withering with a small population of aging women who were tattooed at a very young age. Their source of income is hand woven small textiles and trinkets, and now small tips that people give when visiting the village.

The spider web pattern on their faces are to depict how complicated life is.

Customs: The other traditional customs of huge wooden earrings through the ear lobes

An old Chin woman whose tattoo remains on the face, but the ear lobe is torn after decades of wearing the rounded earrings

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