‘Lip plates’, or ‘lip disks’, have been worn for centuries in communities across Africa and South America, and by Inuit tribes in northern Canada. Although most commonly worn by women, in some societies it’s been customary for men to wear such plates, sometimes in both their top and bottom lips. For many, this practice had ceased by the 20th century and, today, the tribal groups of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, in the southwest of the country, are thought to be some of the few people on the planet to still practice this art. Photo: Dietmar Amongst the cattle herders and cultivators that call the Omo National Park home, the Mursi people are best known for their dinner plate-sized lip disks, worn by women from their teenage years. The Mursi live in the lower stretch of the Omo Valley, 1,840 kilometres from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. It’s estimated that there are less than 10,000 people in the Mursi tribe today. Photo: Gusjer To mark the change of identity from girl to woman, teenagers as young as 13 choose to begin the process of stretching their lower lips. They start by cutting a centimetre-long incision in their lower lip, which they plug with a wooden peg – a sensitive process which, unsurprisingly, can cause the girls significant pain. A few weeks later, when the initial wound has healed, the peg is replaced with a larger one, and the stretching process starts to take shape as the gap is plugged with increasingly bigger pegs. Photo: Dietmar When the hole is large enough, the first clay or wooden plate, measuring around 4 cm across, is inserted. Over the period of a year, plates are replaced with progressively larger ones as the lip stretches. Women choose how far they wish to stretch their lips, some feeling more discomfort than others. Final plates can measure from 8 centimetres to more than 20, and women may have to remove some of their lower teeth to accommodate them. Photo: 10b travelling Clay plates, referred to as ‘dhebinya’ by the Mursi tribe, are made by the individual wearer, each of whom decorates their art with ornate patterns. Finished plates may be white if left natural; red if coloured with gongui bark; or black if rubbed with grass or burned plants. In the Mursi tribe, it’s traditional for the men to make the older- style wooden plates (kiyo), which tend to be worn by unmarried girls. Photo: Marc Veraart It’s not necessary to wear your plate at all times, and it’s common to see women with their loose lower lips dangling free. Married women are expected to insert their plates when serving their husbands food, and during important ritual events such as weddings and stick fighting competitions. Unmarried girls, especially those with large lip plates, might wear them whenever they are in public, and those that don’t are considered lazy.

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