Other African body altering traditions involve extreme forms of body piercing The origin of the word ‘tattoo’ is believed to have two major derivations; the first is from the Polynesian word "ta" ...

On a warm afternoon in a remote village, with the sound of drums filling the surrounding, suddenly meeting people happily carrying knife-cut scars all over their bodies is not a rare sight to witness.

Many body modifications have been used by Africans for centuries; many of these modifications have been forgotten or gone into extinction, while others still hold true today. Lip plating is a body ...