A lip plate is a piece of jewelry involved in a form of body modification which can be seen in both Africa and South America. Some people outside of cultures where they are traditionally worn may also practice this form of body modification, for aesthetic, religious, or cultural reasons. The modern primitive movement in the West is especially associated with the wearing of this jewelry among people in the developed world.
To wear a lip plate, someone must pierce his or her lip, and slowly stretch the hole. Classically, the piercing has been accomplished by cutting into the lip and inserting a small peg, and allowing the piercing to fully heal before installing a slightly larger peg. Stretching a lip to accommodate a plate can take time, as the goal is to take advantage of natural tissue elasticity to create a very large hole in the lip which can be filled with a plate made from clay, wood, or metal. Some plates take the form of hollow rings, depending on the culture.
The size of a lip plate can vary considerably. Some are relatively small, while others can approach the size of a dinner plate. Although a number of theories about the different sizes worn have been posited, the most likely explanation has to do with the individual elasticity of the wearer. Some people are capable of stretching their lips much more than others, and all people are forced to stop stretching at a certain point.
Lip plates can be worn in the upper, lower, or both lips. Both men and women have historically worn these plates, with many people crafting their own. African women in the Mursi tribe, a tribe famous for its lip plates, decorate their plates, turning them into complex works of art which are meant to reflect the personality of the owner. The Mursi are in fact so famous for their lip stretching that some people in the West refer to a lip plate as a Mursi.
Among tribal peoples, the lip plate is designed as a personal ornamentation, and sometimes it also has religious or social connotations. For example, Suri women historically started stretching for a lip plate at the time of marriage. In the Northern Hemisphere, people usually wear these plates because they find them aesthetically appealing, or because they want to identify with tribal peoples. Some people find this practice distasteful, either because of personal aesthetics or because they dislike cultural appropriation.