For more than 2,000 years, women from the Baiga tribe in the highland district of Dindori, in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, have been tattooed. Sumintra, 25, from Bona village, has the markings across her forehead, legs and arms. The women who work as tattoo artists are knowledgable about the different types of designs and pigments preferred by various tribes, and their meanings are passed to them by their mothers. The tattooing ‘season’ begins with the approach of winter. (Photo by Ronny Sen/WaterAid/The Guardian)

A student from the union territory of Pondicherry prepares to take part in the inaugural session of the national Balrang Festival 2017 in Bhopal, India, 20 December 2017. More than 500 participants from 26 states across the country take part in the three-day long cultural event to showcase their performances. The festival organised by Madhya Pradesh School Education Department and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangralaya. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA/EFE)

Indian Air Force officers stretch before taking part in full dress rehearsal for India's Republic Day parade in Kolkata, January 23, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A man carries his daughter, dressed as Kumari, on a scooter, as they arrive to attend rituals to celebrate the Navratri Festival, on a road outside the Adyapeath Temple, on the outskirts of Kolkata, India on March 25, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A conductor (C) collects fares from candy floss sellers as they travel in a tram to a marketplace early morning in Kolkata, India, December 23, 2015. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Sikh Nihang (Sikh warriors) perform “Gatka”, an ancient form of Sikh martial arts, during the “Nagar Kirtan” procession to mark the 339th birth anniversary of the Sikh warrior Shaheed Baba Deep Singh, in Amritsar on January 31, 2021. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo/Profimedia)

Devotees throw flower petals on an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, on the occasion of his birthday, celebrated as Magha Ganesh Jayanti, before immersing the idol into the Arabian sea, in Mumbai, India on February 16, 2021. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

Indian holy men, or Naga Sadhu, ride a motorbike on their way to take a holy dip in the Ganges River during the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India, 14 April 2021. Thousands of pilgrims gather for the mass Hindu pilgrimage which occurs every twelve years and rotates among four locations. (Photo by Idrees Mohammed/EPA/EFE)