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Tattoo culture may disappear
LAPE Nannie worries that her death will end the culture of face tattoos for women in her minority culture.
The 98-year-old woman is one of 38 women from the Dulong ethnic group, traditionally known as the "facial tattoo tribe," that still has a tattoo of a butterfly on her face.
Experts said the group in the Dulong River Valley in Yunnan Province was shrinking rapidly from the more than 60 reported last year.
"I do hope others will still remember the butterflies on our faces after we die," Lape Nannie said through an interpreter in her home county of Gongshan.
A close look showed that her cheeks looked like the wings of a butterfly, her nose its body, and her forehead its antennae.
The tiny lady, about 150 centimeters tall and no more than 35 kilograms, had six children, the youngest of whom is 48.
She does not remember when, or why, she had her face tattooed. All she can remember is the acute pain.
"I was there with two other girls from the village," she said. "We all cried in agony."
The other two women died in the last two years.
Peng Yiliang, an ethnic culture expert at the county's cultural bureau, said Dulong women once had their faces tattooed at the age of 12 or 13.
"It was said to mark the puberty of girls and serve as an ID because the patterns varied from clan to clan," Peng said.
Whether the tattoos were considered beautiful in the old days is still open to debate.
"Some say it was an adornment to make women more beautiful. Others say it was meant to make them less attractive so the women wouldn't be abducted," Peng said.
The tattoo, often the image of a butterfly because the souls of the dead were said to turn into butterflies, was etched on the faces of girls using bamboo needles and an ink made out of ashes from the bottoms of pans.
"The process lasted seven or eight hours, and the girls were not allowed to wash their faces for at least five days after the ordeal in order to keep the pattern intact."
Peng, who speaks six ethnic dialects including Dulong, has kept files on 61 tattooed women since last year. He hopes to preserve the unique culture. Many of those documented have died and the oldest still living was more than 100.
Born in 1953, Dong Cuilian is now among the youngest of the women with facial tattoos.
Source: Shanghai Daily
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