From foot binding to neck stretching, from skull elongating to teeth sharpening, various cultures have endured long and painful processes in order to mold themselves into the shapes they believe appeases their gods and cultural standards.
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#1 Lip Plating
Lip plating or streching can be traced back to 8700 B.C. It's been practiced in Africa, Europe and South America. In Ethiopia, the people of the Mursi tribe still practice it nowadays.
#2 Skull Elongation
Skulls have been found in Peru, Iraq and Egypt, and some of them can be traced back as far as 45.000 years. They would start doing it when the infant didn't have it's skull completely formed. It was a sign of status, and some have linked it to the possiblity of alien contact.
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#3 Breast Ironing
In Cameroon, this terrible techinique is used to stop girl's breasts from growing, so they don't look like women and aren't distracted by boys, and don't distract them either. They apply hot spatulas and pestles in order to dissolve the fat and make the breast flat. It only creates numerous health issues, including breast cancer, cysts, and problems with breastfeeding.
#4 Feet Binding
With the intention of stopping feet from growing, little girls in China had them tightly bound. This deforming custom lasted for almost 1000 years, until it was banned in the 20th century. It was a symbol of wealth, since the idea of not needing to use your feet meant you had money and didn't need to work. It was extremely painful and caused many disabilities.
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#5 Scarification
This scarring is a way of producing specific patterns, and is a rite of passage for many African tribes. The Sepik River Tribes in Papua New Guinea spend weeks performing scarification rituals. In South Sudan, the Dinka tribe practice facial scarring, etching patterns into girls for beauty and three lines across the faces of boys to represent manhood.
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#6 Teeth Sharpening
This was a beauty procedure in various cultures. Mayans would do it as an expression of status. Mentawai people, from Indonesia, believe sharpened teeth are a standard of beauty. Although it is not mandatory, many young girls go through this painful procedure to become more beautiful.
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#7 Neck Stretching
Women of the Kayan tribe, in the north of Thailand, begin with this procedure at the tender age of five. They start with four coils, and end up with 25. Actually, the neck isn't pulled up, but rather the shoulders are pulled down. It's done for esthetic reasons.
