{"id":10084,"date":"2010-08-15T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/?p=10084"},"modified":"2023-05-07T07:41:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T14:41:31","slug":"weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird and Interesting Body Art from Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Weird and Interesting Body Art from Around the World &#8211; For as long as history dates back, people from around the world have put a lot of pride and effort into body modifications &#8211; everything from piercings and tattoos to scarification and deformations.<\/p>\n<p><!--TOC--> The reasons are all different. Some do this for religious reasons, others for self expression, aesthetic reasons, or shock value. For some it&#8217;s a cultural ritual.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the reason, I believe they all have one thing in common &#8211; to tell, and share something about themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Telling people who they are, what they believe in, or maybe where they come from.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Good Ways to Learn Something New<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-signs\/\">Weird Signs<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_65 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Weird_and_Interesting_Body_Art_from_Around_the_World\" title=\"Weird and Interesting Body Art from Around the World\">Weird and Interesting Body Art from Around the World<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Scarification\" title=\"Scarification\">Scarification<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Neck_Stretching\" title=\"Neck Stretching\">Neck Stretching<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Japanese_Body_Tattoos\" title=\"Japanese Body Tattoos\">Japanese Body Tattoos<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Nose_Plug_%E2%80%93_Piercings\" title=\"Nose Plug &#8211; Piercings\">Nose Plug &#8211; Piercings<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Lip_Plates\" title=\"Lip Plates\">Lip Plates<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/weird-interesting-body-art-from-around-the-world\/#Maori_Face_Tattoo\" title=\"Maori Face Tattoo\">Maori Face Tattoo<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Weird_and_Interesting_Body_Art_from_Around_the_World\"><\/span>Weird and Interesting Body Art from Around the World<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s fascinating when you travel to see all these different styles of body art around the world, and I&#8217;ve also noticed that more and more seem to start blending together.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the body art you can find around the world is still too much (over the top) for many people in the West to handle, so today I am going to share the 5 I personally am most fascinated by:<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Scarification\"><\/span>Scarification<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Scarification is present in many cultures, especially in Africa, and also in Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n<p>In the Sepik tribe in New Guinea scarification is an&nbsp;initiation rite for young men.<\/p>\n<p>They slice the mens&#8217; chest, back, and buttocks with a bamboo edge to test their strength and self-discipline.<\/p>\n<p>The Sepik tribe&nbsp;believe that crocodiles created the humans, and the scars in their scarification represent teeth marks of the crocodile that &#8220;swallowed&#8221; the young man during the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Scarification in the West is growing in popularity, as a way for young people to stand out and be &#8216;different&#8217;.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Neck_Stretching\"><\/span>Neck Stretching<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In some African and Asian cultures a long neck is seen as the ideal of beauty, and to achieve this ideal they use neck rings to stretch their necks.<\/p>\n<p>Neck rings are a number of spiral coils that are added on gradually to stretch the neck, and put weight on the shoulder blades to make them deform causing the illusion of a longer neck.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Japanese_Body_Tattoos\"><\/span>Japanese Body Tattoos<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Tattooing has a 2000 year old history.<\/p>\n<p>Originally it was used as a punishment for criminals, to brand them so that they could be identified as criminals and outcast of the society.<\/p>\n<p>In Japan they would covered these marks up by making full body tattoos to hide them.<\/p>\n<p>This style of tattooing became really popular when it reached the bigger cities, and was also used as a revolution towards the strict laws.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/dealing-with-culture-shock-while-traveling\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Communing with Nature In a Kimono<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Nose_Plug_%E2%80%93_Piercings\"><\/span>Nose Plug &#8211; Piercings<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One of the most bizarre nose piercings are the ones the women have in the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/world-news\/gallery\/dark-reason-behind-remote-indian-10696590\" target=\"_blank\">Apatani Tribe<\/a> in India.<\/p>\n<p>This tribe is pretty mysterious, they have no written history and traditions are passed by mouth from generation to generation.<\/p>\n<p>One of their traditions is the big nose plugs the women have in both nostrils.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s said that because the women of this tribe were the most beautiful women among the Arunachal tribes, they used to be kidnapped by neighboring tribes.<\/p>\n<p>The nose plug was born as a way to protect the women from the other tribes by making them ugly.<\/p>\n<p>However, this custom will soon be gone and forgotten, as it hasn&#8217;t been practiced on anyone born after 1970.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Lip_Plates\"><\/span>Lip Plates<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Lip plates are worn by both women and men in many different countries across the world, all for different reasons.<\/p>\n<p>In some countries the largest lip plates are worn by the best war chiefs, in others it represents maturity and a sign that a girl has become a woman and is ready for marriage.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Maori_Face_Tattoo\"><\/span>Maori Face Tattoo<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The head was considered the most sacred part of the body, and because tattooing caused &#8216;blood to run&#8217;, the tattoo craftsmen, or &#8220;tohunga-ta-oko&#8221;, were very tapu persons.<\/p>\n<p>All high-ranking M\u0101ori were tattooed, and those who went without tattoos were seen as persons of no social status.<\/p>\n<p>Certain Maori tattoos are still only accepted by special people, and the Maori people can get very upset if their rules and traditions are ignored.<\/p>\n<p>What is the weirdest or most interesting tattoo, and body art you have ever seen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For as long as history dates back, people from around the world have put a lot of pride and effort into body modifications &#8211; everything from piercings and tattoos to scarification and deformations&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aswetravel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}