Suya

Full unedited video of Suya tribesman carving, painting and inserting a lip disk. Prior to first contact, (circa 1960) Suya men wore lip discs in their lower lips. The lower lip was pierced and gradually stretched, creating a narrow band of muscle, which held a thick circular disc of light wood that could reach seven or eight centimeters in diameter at maturity. Unlike certain African tribes, where women practice lip stretching, the Suya did not extract teeth to accommodate the wearing of their lip discs. Although, with the passage of time and the pressure exerted by the lip disc, the four lower teeth of most Suya men were missing in their later years. Suya lip discs were painted with red Urucum (dye extracted from tree bark) on the top and sides, but left the natural white color of the wood on the underside, with the exception of a small circular design. This design was painted with a black dye made from Genipapo (fruit of the Genipapo tree) surrounding a small raised area in the center of the underside of the disc. Men frequently did not wear their ear discs during the day, but they always wore their lip discs, only removing them to clean their discs while they bathed or to replace them with new and/or larger discs (as in this video). Prior to ceremonies men would make and insert new ornaments in both their lips and their ears. Both sexes had their ears pierced at the earliest signs of sexual activity, if it had not already been done at birth. Unlike the Kayapo, where <b>...</b>