The Konyak villages of Mon: where headhunting history meets a tattoo revival

In the Konyak villages of Mon district, the last elders who earned facial tattoos as warriors of a headhunting past are being honoured — and a younger generation is choosing the marks anew.

The revival is cultural, not martial: apprentices study the geometric language of the tattoos, each line once a record of a man’s deeds.

Tourists come for the story, but the villages insist the telling belongs to them.