March 8, 2012 The Mursi Woman Project

[CaliforniaMama]

Lower lip piercing.

Upper lip piercing.

The Mursi are a Sub-Saharan African nomadic cattle-herding tribe from an isolated region of southwestern Ethiopia close to the Sudanese border. The Mursi women are famous of wearing plates in their lower lips – though photographs indicate that, in fact, either lip may be pierced. This practice is supposed to have originated as a means of detering slave-traders; as the lips are not pierced until girls are aged fifteen or sixteen this seems unlikely. The lip discs are made of clay and, yes, they are removed for eating.

As if these images aren't fantastic enough, check this out:



Just another Mursi woman?

No, not really. She is made up to look like a Mursi woman. She is really not Mursi.

She is not even black! She has blonde hair and blue eyes.

Here she is without make up:



Here are some images from the makeup process:











Posted by request. Thanks footfootfoot!

Images from themakeupgallery race makeups and demonstrations.