A Karo girl in all her finery. It is a Karo tradition for girls and young women to pierce a hole below the lower lip in which they place a thin piece of metal or a nail for decoration. Many girls also scar their stomachs in attractive patterns to beautify themselves.The Karo are a small tribe living in three main villages along the lower reaches of the Omo River in southwest Ethiopia. The largest village, Duss, is home to almost half the population of around 3,500 people. Once solely agriculturalists, the people now keep livestock as well.They are Omotic people and speak a dialect of their larger and more powerful neighbours, the Hamar, from whom they originated in the distant past.                  B0014P 0390Nigel Pavitt52005100456105010+03006