Getting Under the Skin

People have been getting tattoos for almost 5,000 years.

The oldest known tattoos were found on the remains of a man who lived in the Italian Alps around 3,000 BCE. mummies from ancient Egypt and other cultures around the world are also regularly found adorned with tattoos, according to the Associated Press.

Because tattoos often blur or fade over time, and are impacted by the decay of human remains, scientists have found it exceptionally hard to study the ink-work of cultures dating back thousands of years.

However, in a new study, researchers showed how they used a new method involving lasers to uncover the highly intricate designs of ancient tattoos on mummies originating from Peru.

“LSF technology lets us see tattoos in their full glory, erasing centuries of degradation,” said the study’s lead author Thomas G. Kaye in a statement.

According to the study, tattoos were a prevalent art form in pre-Hispanic South America and held cultural significance.

To better see the detail of these ancient tattoos, researchers used Laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF), which produces images based on the fluorescence of a sample. Specifically, it makes the tattooed skin beam bright white, which allows the carbon-based black tattoo ink to appear more clearly and with more detail than could be seen with the naked eye, according to Live Science.

The researchers used the method on about 100 mummies with tattoos from the pre-Columbian Chancay culture, which inhabited coastal Peru from about 900 to 1533 CE.

The level of detail in the tattoos was found to be higher than the textiles and the rock art created by those ancient individuals, suggesting the importance of the art form in the Chancay culture, according to the study.

“The Chancay culture, known for its mass-produced textiles, also invested significant effort in personal body art,” said Kay. “This could point to tattoos as a second major artistic focus, perhaps carrying deep cultural or spiritual significance.”

The research team also found that the complexity of art in pre-Columbian Peru was at a level higher than previously thought, suggesting that the new technique can provide further insights into this historic art form.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” study co-author Michael Pittman said in a statement. “LSF technology opens up a world of possibilities for studying ancient tattoos, not just in Peru but around the world. We hope that by introducing LSF technology to the practice of tattoo analysis we will further expand our knowledge of this important ancient artform.”