Tattooed Women of Myanmar

5.9.2016 | Tags: Travel, Portrait

Domenico Pugliese has just returned from a personal adventure, photographing the tattooed women of Myanmar (Burma). 

Up the hill in the remote village of Mindat, Domenico got in touch with a disappearing tradition, a tradition that goes back to the 12th century; the tattooed women. Their faces covered in elaborate black patterns and in some cases, totally dark with ink. According to legend this all began when an ancient king went to Kachin state to choose the woman to make slaves. The inking was intended to make the faces look dirty and repulsive... but as time passed the tattoos became a symbol of beauty.

The young generations are increasingly reluctant to be inked for fear of ridicule and for fear of the heavy fines imposed by the ruling military junta. Burma's tattooing tradition is on borrowed time and could disappear within a generation.

See more of Domenico Pugliese's documentary work here, including his poignant body of work capturing the threatened Awa Guaja tribe in the Brazilian rainforest.