Don’t give me lip

Ataye Eligidagne and her lip disc that measures 59.5cm in circumference.

Ataye Eligidagne and her lip disc that measures 59.5cm in circumference.

Published Oct 20, 2014

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London - When scouring through far-flung corners of the world, you never know what you might find.

This month, an Australian film crew, led by cinematographer Abrahem Joffe, stumbled upon the world’s largest lip disc in the valleys of southern Ethiopia.

Joffe said the crew was filming a documentary series for Canon Australia when they made the discovery.

“We were taking a tour with some of the local guides, when they spotted the woman, they were absolutely bewildered,” he said.

“I’m a big reader of Guinness World Records and I figured it was out of the ordinary, but you know you’ve found something special when the locals are amazed.”

Ataye Eligidagne, 20, wears the largest lip disc in the world. At 59.5cm in circumference and 19.5cm in diameter, it’s over twice the size of the average disc.

The previous record in the Guinness Book of World Records was a disc of 15cm in diameter.

Lip discs are a tradition among the Surma women of the lower Omo Rover valley in Ethiopia. There is evidence of women wearing the discs in this region from 1896. The procedure, which also involves knocking out the bottom two teeth, is done at the age of 15 to 18. In recent times, the Ethiopian government has taken measures to ban the discs, and the tradition is said to be dwindling.

The discs carry a multifaceted significance. They are intended to attract a husband, as well as a dowry for the family of the wife, who are given a contingent of cattle respective to the size of the disc. The discs are also a form of self-expression and a matter of pride. The larger the disc, the more impressive.

Eligidagne, who has been stretching her lips for three years since the initial piercing, said it was not painful and there weren’t any adverse affects.

Joffe asked their guides to translate for the woman so he could interview her, but the guides were not fluent in Mursi, the local dialect, so they had to use a local warrior to translate for the guide.

 

“When we asked her (Eligidagne) if her daughter would adhere to the tradition, she said she wasn’t sure her daughter would see it the same way, and she would respect her daughter’s decision on whether or not to do it.” – The Daily Mail

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