It is said that this important ceremony is not essential in virgins.

One of the ceremonies of assuming the toga virilis among the indigenous Australians consists in submitting to having each particular hair plucked singly from the body, the candidate being required not to display evidences of pain during the operation.

Formerly the Japanese women at marriage blackened their teeth and shaved or pulled out their eyebrows.
The custom of boring the ear is very old, mention of it being made in Exodus xxi., 5 and 6, in which we find that if a Hebrew servant served for six years, his freedom was optional, but if he plainly said that he loved his master, and his wife and children, and did not desire to leave their house, the master should bring him before the judges; and according to the passage in Exodus, "he shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever." All the Burmese, says Sangermano, without exception, have the custom of boring their ears.
The days when the operations were performed were kept as festivals.

The ludicrous custom of piercing the ears for the wearing of ornaments, typical of savagery and found in all indigenous African tribes, is universally prevalent among our own people.
The extremists in this custom are the Botocudos, who represent the most cruel and ferocious of the Brazilian tribes, and who especially cherish a love for cannibalism.

They have a fondness for disfiguring themselves by inserting in the lower parts of their ears and in their under lips variously shaped pieces of wood ornaments called peleles, causing enormous protrusion of the under lip and a repulsive wide mouth, as shown in Figure 230.
Tattooing is a peculiar custom originating in various ways.