Beautiful Body Decorations

Have you ever walked in town or even any social place and one or two people with decorated skin walked past you? You always find yourself turning to admire how beautiful the art looks on their beautiful skin. In Africa we have different body decorations which played very important roles for thousands of years to the different African cultures and persons. These body decorations were often used to express society’s social status, religious beliefs, personal style and cultural identity.They include,

Scarification

This form of body modification involves intentionally cutting or burning the skin to create permanent scars. Ouch sounds really painful, salute to them for being so strong. Some of the tools that were used to form the body scars were thorns, razor blades, knives and needles. One could then be scarred on the face, back or even chest.

Each community had their own reasons of also scarring the body, for example they could do it to signify life events, social status or even as a rite of passage. For example, the communities from west Africa that practiced scarification to identify a person's place of origin.

Body Painting.

Some communities painted their bodies using natural pigment or even white paint designs or patterns on the skin to signify a religious practice or a certain spiritual ceremony. Some people would paint their faces and others would paint their whole body or even just the hand and legs.

Looks very beautiful on their popping melanin skin.

Tattoos.

Tattoos are scars formed when one punctures the skin with a needle or thorn and injects ink into the dermis layer of the skin. Each African culture has its own and unique designs and meanings.NO painkillers were used as one had to be courageous and endure the pain without shedding any tears during the process of getting it.

One could get a tattoo on the face or even the whole body depending on the community.

Beadwork.

This body decoration involved attaching beads to clothing, accessories and body parts to enhance its beauty. Beads were often used to create designs and patterns and they were popular in many African Tribes. They would use beads of different colors so as also to make it more attractive preferably bright colors. It was mostly done by the women.

Lip Plates and Ear Plates

Lip plates involved the removal of the lower teeth then stretching the lower lip to create a hole that is then fitted with a plate to enlarge it more. The ear plate also involved stretching the ear lobe and later fitting it with a plate after it enlarges. This was mainly done by the women as a symbol of beauty and wealth in their different African tribes

Jewelry

This is a popular form of body decoration among Africans in the different African cultures. The jewelry was made from different materials including beads, shells, silver and gold and often worn to symbolize wealth and status.

Hairstyles and Braiding.

Women in African culture used hairstyles to decorate their body to make themselves even more attractive. Different hairstyles have different meanings, for the women. Others would use their hair to show their marital status, age and social status. And there was nothing so beautiful since the braids were done in different lengths, sizes and later tied in different designs.

 

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