During my first trip to Myanmar, I saw these amazing women with tattooed faces. I returned to Myanmar with the desire to make portraits of women whose faces are inked in most cases against their will. It was important for me to talk with each of the women whose portrait I made. I wanted to understand their inner relation to themselves.

Each woman has her own personal story and her attitude towards face tattoos. Most tattoos were made by force at a very young age, from 5 to 16 years old. Some of the women did not remember the age when they had been tattooed and simply showed me their height at that moment with gestures. Some of them are embarrassed about their face, some got accustomed and love themselves. Though there are girls who really dreamed about tattoos and wanted to make them so sharp that they outlined tattoos several times. The Burmese government banned making tattoos in 1975, but some tattoo masters made tattoos for girls despite the ban. I shoot 33 women with the tattoo on their faces. The youngest girl with the tattoo I met is now 28 years old.

I specially made portraits close-up, so that the viewer could peer at the faces, concentrate their attention on the look and tattoos of each of the women.