We share with you pictures of African lip plugs, or labrets, which were in fashion prior to European contact in Africa. Their  original purpose may  have been to deform, affording women a sort of protection from Arab slavers. David Livingstone asked a chief the reason for them and in surprise the chief answered; for beauty! They are the only beautiful things women have. Men have beards, women have none. What kind of person would she be without Pelele ? She would not be a woman at all.

Sometime after birth, mothers would pierce a child’s lip with a thorn. The holes were enlarged with stalks of grass until they were about two centimeters in diameter and large enough to insert a plug. In some tribal areas, the stretching of one or both lips continued throughout  life, by inserting ever larger plugs. Lip tissue would elongate and conform to the shape of the implanted objects. Sometimes the lower incisor teeth were extracted to make room for the base of the plug or plate.