Nepal, June 6 -- Sita Rana Tharu was 20 years old and newly wed when she asked her mother-in-law to draw a tattoo on her hand. All the women in her family and neighbourhood at her village Thingura, Nepalgunj, had inked their hands and feet, so it was only natural for her to get one too.

"People used to say that you wouldn't be allowed to enter heaven after you die, if you don't have tattoos," says the 65 year old, whose forearms and feet are now covered with various tattoos.

When asked what her first tattoo was, she can barely remember. But she says that, over the years, she has inked peacocks, a stove, stools, and cooking pots over her limbs. These are the materials, her community believes, that will help them survive in the afterlife....