Pictures Of Tribes With Lip Plate

A lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly larger discs (usually circular, and made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. The term labret (pronounced LAY-bret) denotes all kinds of pierced-lip ornaments, including plates and plugs.

Archeological evidence indicates that labrets have been independently invented no less than six times, in Kamchatka (8700 BC), Iran (6400 BC), the Balkans (5000 BC), Sudan (3700 BC), Mesoamerica (1500 BC), and Coastal Ecuador (500 BC). Today, the custom is maintained by a few groups in Africa and Amazonia. Some scholars have argued that in Africa, labret fashion boomed because slave traders refused to purchase slaves whose appearance was not considered "pristine" for the prospective buyers.