For Africa’s indigenous Amazighs, body art was more than mere images. While women sported obvious tattoos on their bodies and their faces in the early days, the tattoos got incrementally smaller and less noticeable over the years. Ironically, tattoos were strictly forbidden among the continent’s Christians and Jews but not among Amazigh Muslims. (DeAgostini / Getty Images)Puberty and marriage were the decisive milestones that earned Amazigh women their tattoos. “With changes to arbitrary standards of beauty, we now have other ways of celebrating the human body,” he said.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 04, 2019 14:48 UTC