Dress Adornment

Among China's many minority nationalities, only the women of the Li nationality on Hainan Island and the Drungs had the custom of tattooing the face.

When a girl reaches the age of twelve or thirteen, she is to have her face tattooed. There are different explanations as to why the women tattoo their faces. Some people say that the Drungs consider a tattooed woman more beautiful and will not marry a woman without tattoos on her face.

Others say that the tattoos are marks differentiating woman of different clans and tribes. Drung women living in different areas have tattoos of deferent designs and on different parts of the face. Most of the women in the lower reaches of the Drung river have tattoos of vertical lines only on the left and right of the philtrum, which look like a man's mustache. Women living in the upper reaches of the river cover their entire faces with tattoos of different designs. From the tattoos on a woman's face the local people can tell where the woman is from and which clan she belongs.

The Drung method of tattooing is extremely primitive.

A design is drawn on the face first and then pricks are made with a bamboo needle dipped in soot. After each prick, the blood is wiped off and more soot applied on the wound.

When the scars come off four or five days later, permanent dark lines will appear on the face. Most of the Drung women having tattoos on their faces today are those who are thirty or older. Younger women now refuse to suffer the pains of tattooing and to have their faces married by tattoos.