Jens Parkitny

Jens Uwe Parkitny was born in 1965 in Seligenstadt, Germany, and has a professional background in commercial publishing and journalism. He is an accomplished online editor and fine art photographer who exhibited his work in museums and galleries in Germany, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong and New Zealand. He started his long-term Burma (Myanmar) Chin Women art photo project in 2001 and over time has become the only expert world wide on the practise of Chin facial tattooing in Myanmar. Jens is the author of several articles and (self-published)-books on the topic such as "Bloodfaces - Through the lens: Chin Women of Myanmar" (Flame of the Forest, Singapore 2007) and "Chin Women of Burma and their Facial Tattoos: A portrait" (Bavarian State Museum of Ethnology, Munich, Germany, 2010). His latest book "Marked for Life: Myanmar's Chin Women And Their Facial Tattoos" (Kerber Verlag, 2017) is the most complete documentation on the vanished tradition of facial tattooing among different Chin groups in remote areas of Western Myanmar. After corporate career stations at Microsoft and Expedia, he now spends most of his time with his family in Myanmar. Together with his wife Swe Yi he has built Loikaw Lodge by the Lake, a small up-scale guest house in Loikaw, Kayah State, that opened in October 2016. A selected portfolio of his photographic work is there on permanent display.