We've seen it all when it comes to fashion and patterns in African and African-American culture; from- bleaching creams, gold grids, sagging pants and now pink lips. Yes friends, pink tattoo on the lower lip (or red, if you prefer) is the latest craze of fashion among many men in Nigeria. This is a new fashion trend sweeping Nigerian tattoo parlors across the country - called "Pink Lips". High quality tattoo ink is used for this purpose as lips are pretty sensitive.
The process involves young men with their lower lip tattooed with pink paint. And there’s no specific reason as to why they decided to mark their lips permanently in such a fashion! A tattoo artist Lagos said he "cleans" the black lips by painting them pink. The beneficiaries of the procedure believe that pinker lips attract the opposite sex.
Personally, those pink lips tattoo remind us of undermining stereotypical cartoons back in the day when blacks had dark-skinned sport lips that had shades of pink and were mocked by exaggerated racist and degrading images. An image comes to mind: Little Black Sambo! Ironically, it was a tale character beloved raccoon and was very adorable with those pink lips. Sambo was as popular as today Wimpy Kid Diaries or Curious George.
Now, half a century later, on the shores of the country, we see this buffoonery pink lip being embraced as a fashion statement. If you ask me, I think this is yet another attempt to change the misunderstood reality of hatred for black skin.
