Inked

• Photographer
  Tanya Sharapova
• Prize
  Silver in People / Culture

Mostly tattoos on the faces of Myanmar women in Chin state have been done against their will. Tattoos have been made when these women were young girls at the age 4-15 years, without any painkillers by old technology using thin wooden sticks from bamboo or rattan. Some of these women are embarrassed about their face, some got accustomed and love themselves. Myanmar government banned making tattoos in 1975, but some tattoo masters made tattoos for girls despite the ban. The youngest girl with the tattoo I met is now 28 years old. The reason why these tattoos were made is an old tradition of init