The Cheek Piercers of Goddess Maryamma

The Cheek Piercers of Goddess Maryamma, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

The rituals had been delayed and when the piercings began it was quite dark.

Raja the piercer was grumbling as he was finding it hard to put the hooks on the backs of the devotees.

Because Raja and I are good friends I got the best viewpoint in shooting the pictures , literally pushing my lens in the mouth of the person whose cheek was being pierced by a 18 feet iron rod..

What really gets me is not the piercing but the splashing of milk from the piercers mouth into the mouth of the pierced person .

Milk is used as a lubricant to move the rod in the mouth