WARNING: This list contains disturbing footage. Archaeologists have uncovered countless ways humans have altered their own flesh throughout the ages. While a simple ear‑piercing or a fresh tattoo is commonplace today, certain societies have taken body modification to astonishing extremes. Join us for a top 10 fascinating tour of these eye‑opening customs.
Top 10 Fascinating Practices Explained
10 Neck Elongation
Neck elongation involves the gradual addition of heavy brass rings around a woman’s neck, creating the illusion of an impossibly long neck. The rings don’t actually stretch the neck; instead, they push the clavicle and upper ribs downward, making the neck appear extended.
As the rings accumulate, their weight forces the collarbone and ribs to shift roughly 45° lower than their natural position. Though variations exist across Africa and Asia, the most iconic example comes from the Kayan Lahwi tribe of Myanmar.
Girls begin wearing the first brass collar as early as two to five years old. Over the years, additional rings are added, progressively deforming the bones to sustain the elongated look. Marco Polo first reported this custom to Europe around 1300 AD.
The alteration is essentially permanent. Removing the rings is technically possible but risky; improper removal can be fatal, and even a careful extraction is excruciating. Consequently, most women accept the rings as a lifelong commitment.
9 Lip Plates
While many Westerners are familiar with stretching earlobes, some African cultures have been inserting ever‑larger plates into pierced lips for centuries. Clay or wooden disks are gradually enlarged until a substantial lip plate can be displayed.
This practice emerged independently at least six times—in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mesoamerica, and Ecuador—with African examples dating back to 8700 BC. Today, Ethiopia remains the hotspot for lip‑plate tradition.
The Mursi and Surma peoples of the lower Omo River valley begin the ritual roughly six to twelve months before a young woman’s marriage, usually between ages 15 and 18. The first step is a simple wooden peg inserted into the lower lip.
Over time the peg is swapped for larger ones, culminating in a full plate. In 2014 the world’s largest recorded plate measured 23.4 inches (59.5 cm) in circumference and 7.6 inches (19.5 cm) wide.
8 Blackening & Filing Teeth
The Bagobo tribe of Mindanao in the southern Philippines maintains a rite of passage that sharpens and blacks the teeth of its youth. Historically linked to the spread of Hinduism, this custom persists among some community members today.
When a Bagobo adolescent reaches puberty, the teeth are filed by pressing the teen’s head against the practitioner’s shoulder while the teen bites a wooden stick, shaving the teeth down to sharp points.
After filing, the teeth are blackened using a powder derived from a specific tree or from black smoke filtered through bamboo. This dark coating completes the transformation.
During the entire procedure the participant may not drink water, consume sour foods, or attend funerals—preventing the display of their imperfect teeth from causing offense.
7 Circumcision
Modern medicine often frames circumcision as a routine health procedure, yet it has deep cultural roots and qualifies as a form of body modification. The operation removes the foreskin covering the glans of the penis.
Although most Western hospitals perform circumcisions on newborns without explicit cultural or religious motivations, the practice traces back to eastern Africa sometime after 3000 BC.
Early evidence suggests the foreskin, a primary erogenous zone, was removed as a symbolic sacrifice of earthly pleasure for potential spiritual benefit. The ritual later entered Jewish tradition, where boys are circumcised on the eighth day after birth as a covenant with God.
Thus, circumcision bridges ancient cultural symbolism and contemporary medical practice, illustrating how body alteration can serve multiple societal functions.
6 Scarification
Scarification, a sibling of tattooing, creates permanent designs by cutting, branding, or scratching the skin, leaving raised scars that form the intended image.
Communities employ scarification for rites of passage, religious devotion, or social status. Because the resulting marks contrast sharply on darker skin, the practice is especially prevalent across sub‑Saharan, West, and East African cultures, including the Gonja, Tiv, and Maasai.
Unlike tattooing, scarification inflicts greater trauma, raising infection risks and demanding longer healing intervals between sessions.
The method can involve intricate patterns, each carrying specific cultural meaning, and often requires a seasoned practitioner to ensure the scars heal in the desired shape.
See Also: 10 Horrifically Botched Circumcisions
5 Fingertip Removal—Dani Village, New Guinea
Fingertip amputation appears in several societies, from Japanese Yakuza to the remote Dani tribe of Indonesia’s highlands. In the Dani community, the ritual is known as Ikipalin.
When a loved one passes away, women of the tribe surgically remove the upper half of their fingers to protect the family from the spirit of the deceased. The act is believed to keep restless souls at bay.
Ikipalin also serves as a visible sign of mourning; mothers may even bite the fingertips off their infants so the children partake in the tradition from birth.
Although the Indonesian government has outlawed the practice, it reportedly persists in parts of Western New Guinea, where older women often display missing fingertip portions.
4 Genital Beading
Genital beading—also called pearling—originated in Southeast Asia around the early 1400s. The practice gained notoriety through Yakuza members, who insert a single pearl for each year of imprisonment.
Pearling entails embedding tiny beads beneath the genital skin. Men typically place beads along the penile shaft, while women may insert them under the labial tissue. The primary aim is to heighten sexual sensation for partners during intercourse.
Early versions used actual pearls, but modern practitioners favor biocompatible materials like surgical steel, titanium, Teflon, and silicone to minimize health risks.
Today, Filipino sailors are famed for adopting pearling as a way to impress women in port cities, often boasting that their beaded enhancements make them especially desirable.
3 Female Genital Mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) seeks to eradicate erogenous tissue by removing the clitoral hood, clitoral glans, and sometimes the inner and outer labia, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual flow.
Although widely condemned as a human‑rights violation, an estimated 200 million women across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia continue to endure the practice.
FGM’s origins are murky, but evidence points to its existence in Egypt’s Middle Kingdom around 2050 BC, as suggested by hieroglyphic references, though no mummified remains conclusively display the cuts.
Ancient Egyptian writers, such as Pilio of Alexandria, noted that “the Egyptians…circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth year of their age when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow.”
2 Foot Binding
Foot binding, a Chinese tradition, involved tightly wrapping young girls’ feet, gradually reshaping them into the coveted “lotus foot” – a small, arched foot with toes tucked under the sole.
The custom likely began among elite dancers in the 10th century, later spreading to the Song‑era aristocracy and eventually permeating all social classes by the Qing dynasty.
Girls as young as four would start the binding in winter, soaking their feet in a herbal‑blood mixture, trimming nails short, and then applying relentless pressure until the toes fractured and the arches collapsed.
The process could last years, with bindings tightened repeatedly until the foot achieved the desired diminutive shape. The practice faded in the 20th century as modern reforms took hold.
1 Head Shaping
Head shaping, or artificial cranial deformation, alters a child’s skull by flattening or binding it before the fontanelles close, producing a deliberately misshapen head.
Archaeological evidence shows head shaping predates written history, with proto‑Neolithic skeletons from as early as 9000 BC displaying elongated, almost conical crania.
Hippocrates documented the “Macrocephali,” or long‑heads, around 400 BC. In the Americas, the Maya and Inca practiced cranial modification, as did some North‑American indigenous groups.
In Europe, French families continued head shaping into the late 1800s, using tight bandages for two to four months, then replacing them with a fitted basket reinforced with metal threads as the child grew.
The Vanuatu people of Tommen Island maintained the custom well into the 20th century, though it has largely disappeared today.
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