Marked
Tattoos, piercings and other lasting marks. 21 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.
Marked features are lasting: tattoos, piercings and scars that stay on the face for life. They include tā moko, kakiniit and other face tattoos, nose and lip piercings, and scarification such as the Yoruba facial marks. Most traditional marks record belonging, to a family, a people or a stage of life, and many were given in childhood or youth.
Tattoo and scar
Face tattoos have been made by carving (tā moko), stitching with sooty thread (kakiniit), pricking with thorns (Apatani tippei) and modern machines. Scarification cuts patterns that heal as raised or lasting marks, as in Yoruba ila and Igbo ichi. Semi-permanent cosmetic tattoos, such as microbladed brows, fade over a few years.
Piercing
Nose piercing is common across South Asia and the Middle East, and lip ornaments, labrets, have a long history in the Americas and the Arctic. Mursi women in Ethiopia stretch the lower lip to hold a plate. Modern piercing of the brow, lip and septum spread in Western fashion from the 1990s. A healed piercing may close if left empty.
Famous marked face guides
Further reading
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Face tattoo: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source
- Nose piercing: Marie Richie, CC BY 2.0, source
- Tā moko: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source
- Yoruba tribal marks: User:FA2010, Public domain, source
- Kakiniit: Henry Busse, Public domain, source
- Pe'ot: Andrew Dyer, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Scarification: John Atherton, CC BY-SA 2.0, source