Sacrifice for Status
All women I met did not only remember the pain they had to go through, but also their swollen faces in the days and weeks after. They could only swallow rice porridge as chewing was painful and any flexing of the facial muscles would cause new bleeding of the wounds, and with it came an increased risk of infections.
None of the women I have met, however, seem to have been forced into the tattooing ritual - at least this is what they say. But since the tattooing was conducted on the girls at a young age of between seven and 15 years, the question has to be what choice would a child or a teen, in a society which regards a facial tattoo as the highest social status you can achieve as a woman, actually have?