Stunning images have captured the women of the Suri tribe who slice their lips aged twelve to insert plates measuring up to 16 inches as a symbol of beauty.
The pictures taken by Raúl Barrero, 39, from Alicante, Spain, show matriarchs of the tribe clad with clay plates as they posed for portraits in Kibish, Omo Valley, Ethiopia.
One picture shows a woman taking her clay plate off to display her stretched lips after years of wearing the device.
Another photo showed an old woman smoking a bong-like apparatus whilst wearing a ten-inch lip plate.
Used as a status symbol, the larger the lip plate, the more cows the girl’s father can demand in dowry when his daughter marries – cattle are enormously important to the Suri people as a mark of wealth.
Although becoming less popular among the young, most women in the tribe have their bottom teeth removed and their lips pierced, then stretched, to allow the plates to be inserted – a right of passage carried out from as young as 12.
At puberty most young girls have their two lower teeth removed in order to get their lower lip pierced for face plates, this usually happens a year before they are to be married.
Sometimes even four teeth are removed to allow a bigger plate inserted, as it is believed that the size represents social and economic importance to the tribe.
Women and children in the tribe also often decorate themselves with white clay patterns, and flowers on their heads.
The Suri Baale people live to the west of the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, and share a similar language with Chai and Timaga ethnic groups. Collectively, they are known as the Surma.
Outside of these two politically and territorially different neighbours, they have no contact with the outside world and are over 60 miles away from the nearest city of Arba Minch, Ethiopia.
Very few even know any Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. The Suri groups share a similar culture, and display social and historical kinship with the Mursi and Me’en groups.
Piecing earlobes for large plates is also common, but children are exempt from the practice. Women and children in the tribe also often decorate themselves with white clay patterns, and flowers on their heads
Omo Valley is home to eight different tribes with a collective population of 200,000 people.
