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Personally, which of the tribes you’ve been with have the most interesting tattoos and body modification rituals? Which of them had the scariest?

The skin-cut tattoos of the Makonde of Mozambique are pretty intense - especially the facial cuts. I was told that boys and girls who attempted to run away while the cutting was taking place were sometimes buried up to their necks in the earth so that the tattoo artist could continue their work!

The Bétamarribé of Benin practice a similar form of facial marking but with no pigment introduced into the cuts. Instead a razor-sharp tool resembling an arrowhead is used to cut two-year-old children in various patterns across their faces. Hundreds and hundreds of cuts are given and I personally witnessed four of these ceremonies. The children scream in pain, some fall unconscious, and there is so much blood that they begin choking on it.

If a child does not receive these markings, they are not considered “human” and certainly not a member of tribe. And if they die before they receive their skin-cuts they will not be buried in the village cemetery with their relatives because they are “unrecognizable” as Bétamarribé.

Other than tattoos, can you relate some of the other interesting rituals of the tribes that you’ve come to encounter?

Viewers will be exposed to many different kinds of rituals on Tattoo Hunter so I would encourage them to watch the series - I don't want to give anything away just yet! But people may also be interested in all of the exotic foods that I have had the "pleasure" of eating along the way including large sago palm grubs that wiggle in your mouth (Indonesia), roasted rats (Thailand), bitter sweet sorghum beer (Benin), monkey brains (Indonesia), and warm blood taken from the neck of a living cow (Ethiopia).