This is a woman of the Chin tribe in Burma. Traditionally girls of this ethnic group they had their faces tattooed to make them unappealing to enemy tribes who would often kidnap children and young girls. I posted another photo of this lady two years ago, but in revisiting the images of her I thought the cigar smoke added a nice touch. Through an interpreter, she recounted her tattoo experience at 10 years old for my photo tour group. She said it was so painful she tried to run away, but her parents tied her to a tree and she had to endure the 2-day torture session. Notice even her eyelids are tattooed. Fortunately, this practice has been abandoned now. I wanted a dark background for drama, so I photographed her in front of the deep shadow beneath one of the raised houses in her village. Even though I could see detail behind her, by exposing for her face and the smoke the contrasty nature of digital photography made the shadows go virtually black. My settings were 1/80, f/4, and 125 ISO. My focal length was 105mm.
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