People often think of decorating the mouth
as a modern indulgence—
a matter of vanity or fashion.

But this idea doesn’t survive
even a brief look into history.

The desire to adorn the mouth
is older than dentistry,
and far older than modern medicine.

---

In ancient Maya civilizations,
as far back as 1,500 to 2,500 years ago,
gems were embedded into teeth
with remarkable precision.

Around the same era,
across the Mediterranean,
the Etruscans were wrapping teeth in gold—
not for health,
but for status.

Across parts of Africa and Asia,
for thousands of years,
teeth have been filed, shaped, or stained.

These were not treatments.
They were not trends.

They were ways of speaking—
of signaling status,
marking adulthood,
and displaying power and attraction
through the mouth.

Long before words,
the mouth already told a story.

---

The mouth has always occupied
a particular position.

It eats.
It speaks.
It breathes.
It kisses.
It is where desire passes in and out.

For that reason, the mouth was rarely hidden.
It was never neutral.
It carried meaning simply by existing.

Even in stillness,
the mouth was already a message.

---

Dentistry arrived much later.

It emerged to treat disease,
to relieve pain,
to restore function.

But long before that,
Humans were already looking at the mouth—
altering it,
shaping it,
and decorating it.

Dentistry did not invent this desire.
It only arrived later
to manage its consequences.

---

This is why decorating the mouth
does not appear abnormal here.

Instead, a different question emerges:

Why does something so old
now feel unfamiliar?

---

Decorating the mouth is not a trend.
It is a lineage.

Without understanding this lineage,
grillz,
lipstick,
lip balm,
and oral piercings
all appear to arrive suddenly—
as if without precedent.

---

This text is an attempt
to remove that sense of suddenness.

To trace where this desire began,
how it diverged,
and why it continues to resurface
in different forms.

There is no conclusion yet.
The explanation is still unfolding.

But one thing is already clear:

The mouth was never neutral.