It seemed the moment to broach this delicate issue.
But I was keen not to cause offence. I didn’t want to let on that it was the
sheer hideousness of the plate that fascinated me. At first I thought I might
try, “Hey, love your lip plate. Do the fellows in your tribe find that as much
of a turn-on as I do?” In the end I settled for the neutral brevity of “why?”
Women do not insert the lip plate until they are
preparing for marriage in their early twenties. An incision is made in the lower
lip, which is stretched over a period of months to accommodate a plate made of
baked clay or wood. The two front lower teeth usually need to be extracted to
make fitting easier.
Stanley Stewart (to
be continued)
