Lip piercing has been catching on in the west as well. What many don’t realize is that until the late nineteenth century, the Eskimo of Alaska defined social status by lip piercing. A man in an Eskimo tribe either wore one lip plug in the middle (labret) or two on either side of the mouth. A man wearing the double labret looked like a walrus. Young men received this piercing, symbolizing their entrance into manhood. Women in this culture usually wore only one, middle, lip plug as decoration. Tlingit girls wore labrets to show their noble social status.