Burma / Myanmar: A boy gets tattooed in Mong Lim in Shan State in 1890

The Shan ethnic group popularized the craft of tattooing in Burma, importing the practice from southern China. Their tattoos had magical or spiritual connotations, similar to the belief in amulets. In Shan culture, a young man was often tattooed from the waist to the knees as a rite of passage and was a sign of virility and maturity. The ritual was performed by the village medicine man, using a long skewer to apply traditional indigo ink or natural vermillion. The procedure could take weeks and the subject would be drugged with opium to ease the pain. Common designs were animals, zodiac signs and geometric patterns.

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