Funny Nose, Body Modification Picture of a Woman: Fact Check

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Funny Nose Body Modification of Woman

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Weird Nose Plugs of the Apatani Women

Fact Check:

A picture shared heavily online in various languages purports to show a funny and weird picture of a woman with funny nose as body modification method. While some viewers thought the picture could be false Photoshop creation, it is a real one, and more importantly, it is not funny, but part of local tradition in India.

Picture of Apatani Tribe Woman with Nose Plugs and Traditional Basket — Apatani Tribe Woman with Nose Plugs and Traditional Basket

Picture of Apatani Tribe Women with Nose Plugs — Apatani Tribe Woman with Nose Plugs and Traditional Basket

Nose Body Modification of Woman

What you see in the picture is in fact an elderly Apatani tribeswoman in an old village Ziro found in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Apatanis are a fascinating tribe, where women wear massive wooden Nose Plugs in the upper parts of their nostrils and also carry facial tattoos. In one of the images above you can see one such elderly woman carrying a traditional basket.

The reason behind the unusual tradition of Apatani women was to make themselves less appealing to other tribes’ men. Because they would often kidnap the most beautiful tribeswomen in Arunachal Pradesh. However, the Indian Government in modern era outlawed the practice and the Apatani women are not following the nose plugging tradition since 1970s. Only the elderly women of the tribe appear with physical marks of the old, fascinating tradition.