LUCY CHEUNG

Photographs of various different cultures by Kieron Nelson.

Pomo bear disguise (N. America)

Blackfoot dance bustle (N. America)

Tupi costume (Bolivia)

Yuki dance outfit (N. America)

Miwok dance costume (N. America)

Peabody museum

Incredible portraits of Maori women from the National Library of New Zealand.

Found via http://e-l-i-s-e.blogspot.com/

Some very beautiful modern photographs of Papua New Guinea and many other countries by Eric Lafforgue.

Phyllis Galembo

The completed lip tattoos of women were significant in regards to Ainu perceptions of life experience. First, these tattoos were believed to repel evil spirits from entering the body (mouth) and causing sickness or misfortune. Secondly, the lip tattoos indicated that a woman had reached maturity and was ready for marriage. And finally, lip tattoos assured the woman life after death in the place of her deceased ancestors.

Apart from lip tattoos, however, Ainu women wore several other tattoo marks on their arms and hands usually consisting of curvilinear and geometric designs. These motifs, which were begun as early as the fifth or sixth year, were intended to protect young girls from evil spirits…Other marks were placed on various parts of the body as charms against diseases like painful rheumatism.

http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattooing_among_japans_ainu.htm

http://siris-collections.si.edu/search/results.jsp?q=ainu+tattoo&x=0&y=0

This Kayan woman (ca. 1930) was of high rank, as evidenced
by the number of rings around her calves. The motif running up the thighs is called silong lejau (tiger’s faces). At the terminus of these bands you can barely make out a different pattern just above the horizontal lines of the calf. This is called nang klimge (“important design”) and is a degraded anthropomorph. The curclicues below the horizontal lines around the calves are called tushun tuva “the tuba root motif”). Each one of these designs was believed to repel evil forces in the jungle. The unmarked portions of her thigh are also visible