Every culture has its own set of coming of age rituals. In America, growing older is celebrated by an increase of freedom. Teenagers gain the ability to drive cars and join the workforce. The Kayan Lahwi of Myanmar are known for putting brass neck coils on their young girls. The coils depress the shoulders and create the effect of an elongated neck. And the Lai Tu Chin tribe, also based in Myanmar, had its own tradition.
But a lot of traditions don’t last forever. In certain circumstances, a coming of age ritual dying out is a good thing. If Chinese women still practiced footbinding , no one in the country would be able to walk. We’ve also seen versions of head binding go the way of the dodo. But why is the Lai Tu Chin tradition of facial tattooing also on its way out?
From 1962 to 2011, Myanmar was ruled by an oppressive military dictatorship. Things didn’t look good in Myanmar during the military reign. Officials were constantly accused of human rights abuses , unlawful arrests, and many other affronts to citizens.
One of their acts was to outlaw the practice of facial tattooing in 1976. The ultimate reasoning isn’t known, but it’s possible this decision was little more than the military regime throwing its weight around.
Whatever the reason, the outcome is undeniable—the women who practiced this art, known as the Hmäe Sün Näe Ti Cengkhü Nu, are going extinct.
The tattoos are made with ink from natural ingredients like the soot from cooking lids. It’s designed to fade over the years, but never go away completely. Because the ink isn’t as dense or dark as standard tattoo ink, the designs are likely to fade faster than typical tattoos.
The results are striking. As these women get older, the spiderweb patterns on their faces offer the barest amount of contour to their features. They fade so much that against a more vibrant background, the tattoos are only faintly visible.
To combat this, Australian photographer Dylan Goldby photographed the women against a neutral background. You can see his images in his upcoming photo book .
But for these pictures, we wanted to capture these remarkable women in their normal setting.
No one who came of age after the 1970s has these tattoos any longer. Efforts to preserve images of them are very important because once these women are gone, their traditions and culture might be gone with them.
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