A memorable journey up the Lemro river. As you can see while her facial tattoes (Payae) are the same, her ears sport bamboo rings.
She told me (via an interpreter) that her face was tattoed at the age of nine, she was wrapped in a bamboo mat with only her head protruding and bound so she could not struggle for the ordeal. For almost six weeks after she could only eat rice-gruel/pap while the wounds healed. I can imagine that infection was also an issue.
Nobody is really sure how the custom became established, but a legend was that hundreds of years ago, Burmese kings and nobles used to come to Chin Hills and hunt for the beautiful Chin girls, as the fame of their beauty reached the court of Burma. To avoid their women being captured by the Burmese, they changed their beauty by tattooing the face of young girls.
As I said before this practice has now stopped.