The lip plate is a form of bodily alteration that the Mursi tribe of Ethiopian's Omo Valley shares with the Surma tribe down the road.
The practice of women wearing lip plates is one of the Mursi people's most distinctive characteristics. The labial plates, which are made of terracotta or wood and worn only by women, are known as dhebi a tugoin in the Mursi language.
When a girl is 15 or 16 years old, her mother or another woman from her tribe cuts a tiny cut just below her lower lip. A little disk is then placed into this cut, and the girl must wear it for a few months while the cut heals.
The first lip disc is then replaced with other, progressively bigger discs to expand the incision, which may eventually grow to be quite extensive.
The Mursi girls, however, are free to choose whether or not to wear the lip plate and practice the incision at their discretion. Similarly, each girl may choose her own preferred lip plate size.
While older women view this as the loss of their tribal identity, many modern girls refuse to make the incision under the lip and wear the lip plate because they see it as a sign of modernity.
Some ladies like to wear lip plates that are at least 12 cm in diameter; in order to wear plates this size, it is required to have the lower incisors removed.
The terracotta plates have a variety of decorations, some are dark and engraved with geometric designs, while others are painted with simple designs in white, black, and brick color. The labial plates are made of terracotta and wood, and typically the wooden ones are thought to be the most beautiful.
It appears that the design and color of lip plates and embellishments have no special significance; rather, it is more likely that girls select the plate based on their personal aesthetic preferences.
If a woman with a lip incision does not wear the plate on these occasions, she is defined as karkarre, or lazy, and may be blamed, sometimes whipped, by relatives. Typically, Mursi women wear the lip plate only on specific occasions: when they participate in ritual events, when they attend duels, when they dance, and when they serve food to their men.
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