The last tattooed women of Burma

In many tribes of the Chin state, in western Myanmar, women have tattooed their face for generations. Some people say it started hundreds of years ago to prevent women from being abducted by the king of the rakhine state. Through times, it became a symbol of beauty. Even if the tattooing process is painful, all of the women I’ve met were very proud of their tattoos. However, the ruling burmese military junta prohibited this practice in the 60s so this tradition could disappear within a generation. Therefore, those tattooed women may represent the last of their kind.