Otari Tatara (O-tarr-ee Tah-tarr-uh)

Otari Tatara, a Kaban term for "Shell welding" is a process by which the Kaban fill the cracks in their shells with buoyant, malleable metals from deep within the Lucent bay. The metal shimmers like gold but is flexible within the cracks of the shell, typically not harming the Kaban itself. 
The process began when the Tara-Jhen misunderstood the physiology of the Kaban, filling their damaged shells with clay and thatch, which would often lead to infection or further structural damage. Even so, displaying your slave's decorated and mended shell was a showing of status, regardless of how much the slaves themselves were harmed. The Tara-Jhen also lacked understanding that the shell was biological in the first place, so they had no reason to expect that the shells would regrow naturally. By the time the language barrier was overcome, most of the older slaves died, leaving higher proportions of the population that were born into slavery, and as such believed the same information about their shells as their slavemasters told them.
When they finally escaped their captors, they abandoned the practice but would eventually pick it back up as a reclamation of their enslavement history. Now, they use materials conducive to healing, and the shell would often heal in layers beneath the metal, but leave the cracked and golden design on top.