The Ethiopian Woman Who Wears A Lip Plate

An Australia movie team led by cinematographer Abrahem Joffe was shooting in south-east Ethiopia when they came upon Ataye Eligidagne. The 20-years old Mursi woman has on the biggest lip dish in the world. At a tremendous 59.5 cm in area and 19.5 cm in size, her solidified clay-based disk is more than twice the size of the common disk, and even the residents are satisfied.

The long-running custom of dressed in lip dishes goes back to the 19th century amongst the Surma and Mursi women of the lower Omo Stream area in Ethiopia. This excessive body adjustment is done to entice a spouse, as well as to control a dowry for the ladies family; the larger the dish, the more livestock her close relatives gets.

The ladies lip is pierced about 6 to 12Months before her wedding by her mom or women family members, usually at the age of 15 to 18. The process includes banging out the end two tooth and the placement of a wood made peg into an cut at the base lip.