The Fascinating Stories Behind 5 of the World’s Oldest Tattooed Mummies
Starting with Ötzi the Iceman, a glacier mummy from the Copper Age with a penchant for acupuncture.
The oldest human evidence we have of ancient tattoos is from a gentleman named Ötzi, “the Tyrolean Iceman”. An alpine dweller long before the fancy ski resorts arrived, he was found beneath a glacier along the Austrian-Italian border and is believed to have died around 3,250 BCE.
Ötzi was covered in tattoos — a combination of dots, lines and crosses. He had a total of 61 across his body: on his torso, lower spine, knee, legs, ankle and wrist. The placement of the tattoos consistently corresponded with signs of physical degeneration in his joints, so experts believe Ötzi’s tattoos were for therapeutic, not decorative, purposes.
Given the number of tattoos Ötzi had on his body, it’s highly unlikely he was the first person in his culture — or on the planet — who’d ever been tattooed. More than likely, this was a firmly established practice. So although Ötzi officially holds the Guinness Book of World Records title as “World’s Oldest Tattoos”, he most likely came from a long line of people who tattooed their bodies for medical reasons.
We don’t know how exactly the tattoos were believed to heal the body or bring pain relief, but they may be related to an early type of acupuncture. This may seem an unusual pairing for us in the modern world — body art and the ancient Chinese form of healing don’t often go together — but acupuncture-related tattoos come up elsewhere in ancient history, as we’ll explore.
Tattoo anthropologist Lars Krutak studied the markings on Ötzi’s body and decided to conduct an experiment. He, along with a tattoo artist friend of his, Colin Dale, and a Chinese acupuncturist, decided to test whether “acupuncture tattoos” could demonstrate any real health benefits. Was there something in this ancient form of healing? Would applying tattoos on classic Chinese acupuncture points have any effect on a patient?
80% of Ötzi’s markings align with classic Chinese acupuncture points for the treatment of rheumatism, according to anthropologist Lars Krutak.
Dale applied a series of body ink to a client that suffered from numerous ailments including asthma and rheumatism. Additionally, an acupuncturist assisted with the placement of the tattoos. Dale reported that within three months of receiving the ink, the client’s symptoms had either diminished or disappeared entirely.
Although this study is far too small to be valid from a scientific perspective — much larger studies would have to be carried out — it could be an experiment worth continuing. At the very least, as Lars Krutak says, it “provides food for thought for the possible purpose of body art in the oldest cultures around the world.”
The Chinchorro Man: Markings of a Leader
Found in modern-day Chile, the Chinchorro mummies are the oldest on earth — some as old as 7,000 BCE. So when the Chinchorro man or (“El Morro mummy” as he’s known) was unearthed, many believed he was the oldest human proof of tattoos in history. It was one of archeology’s hottest debates for years: him vs. Ötzi — until carbon dating revealed Ötzi the Iceman was, in fact, 500 years older.
Unlike Ötzi, however, the Chinchorro man’s tattoos seem to indicate special status or leadership. Most cultures around the world only mummify their elite, but the Chinchorro people were uniquely egalitarian: they mummified all members of their society. And yet, out of 96 people buried, it was only the El Morro man with any tattoos. So they had to be significant. We don’t know what the tiny dots above his upper lip symbolised, but given the rarity of the markings, it’s highly unlikely they were just decorative.
“Once scholars fully analyzed the El Morro mummy and Ötzi, two interesting theories emerged about the meanings of tattoos in history. Both of them suggested that these motifs were more than simple attempts to ornament the human body”, according to Ancient Tattoos of Ötzi and El Morro Man.
The Tattooed Princess in the Permafrost
Some of the best preserved and most spectacular ancient tattoos have been unearthed on mummies buried in tombs in Siberia’s Atlai mountains. These Iron Age mummies (400–300 BCE) are the remains of the Pazyryk people, a nomadic culture, and one of their most famous “residents” is Princess Ukuk.
We don’t know if the Princess was actually a holy woman, healer or shaman, but she was clearly significant. She was buried alongside two presumed warriors, gold and bronze ornaments, six horses — all bridled and saddled — and a canister of cannabis. Her tattoos are so “intricately detailed and highly pigmented” they could easily be mistaken for modern-day — yet she died 2,500 years ago.
According to Dr Natalie Polosmak, the scientist who found the remains, Pazyryks used tattoos as a form of “personal identification — like a passport.” They believed their tattoos could help them find each other after death. The more tattoos someone had, the longer they’d lived, and the higher their status.
“For example the body of one man, which was found earlier in the 20th century, had his entire body covered with tattoos. Our young woman — the princess — has only her two arms tattooed. So they signified both age and status.”
It’s not just what you design, but where you place it on the body. Dr Polosmak noticed a trend in the Pazyryk people that’s still evident today:
“Most likely there was — and is — one place on the body for everyone to start putting the tattoos on, and it was a left shoulder. I can assume so because all the mummies we found with just one tattoo had it on their left shoulders. And nowadays, this is the same place where people try to put the tattoos on, thousands of years on. I think it’s linked to the body composition — as the left shoulder is the place where it is noticeable most, where it looks the most beautiful.”
The Goddess-Worshipping Loulan Beauty
The “Loulan Beauty” was discovered along with 200 other mummies on the old Silk Road in China’s Tarim Basin. The dry climate kept her perfectly preserved 3,800 years after her death and — uniquely in the group — her face was covered in tattoos. The crescent moon and oval designs are believed to be related to goddess worship.
Clearly she wore these symbols proudly — there’s no more prominent a place to have a tattoo. She also had elaborate tattoos on her hands and arms. And while many other Tarim mummies had tattoos, only one male had sun symbols tattooed on his temples (believed to represent the male God) so it’s hypothesised the two of them may have been shamans.
“The tattoos appear to have been done in the manner of the Scythians, Thracians and the Pazyryk, where the design is achieved by the puncture technique not the sewing technique. The puncture method results in darker and larger fields of colour and is much more like modern tattooing,” according to The Beauty of Loulan and the Tattooed Mummies of the Tarim Basin.
Mainstream historians overlooked the Tarim mummy tattoos, considering them “an unimportant curiosity”. But by dismissing their tattoos as merely decorative, we lose out on rich, cultural and genetic information about these people and how they relate to other groups across Asia and Europe.
“Tattoos should not be ignored as if they are simply a decoration. A tattoo becomes the living flesh. When an ancient person chose to be tattooed, they were choosing to be changed, transformed, and brought closer to their deities,” Moose added.
The Lady of Cao: Ruler, Warrior, Healer
The Lady of Cao was part of the Moche society in northern Peru, a pre-Incan culture that apparently “drank the blood of their vanquished enemies”. They were fond of their human sacrifices, too. The Lady of Cao was buried with a teenage girl who’d been strangled, presumably in her honour, and many of the motifs found on Moche artistic objects and tattoos depicted sacrificial rituals.
Although we don’t know the Lady of Cao’s exact role, her burial site and elaborately designed tattoos both indicated she was extremely high status. (Tattoos weren’t common on regular citizens of the Moche society.) “The main theory, supported by Franco Jordán, among others, proposes that she was not only a ruler and but also a seer and curadora (healer) based on the motifs of her tattoos and some of the objects found inside the mummy bundle,” according to Tattooing in Moche Culture: Reconsidering the Identity of the Lady of Cao.
Before the Lady of Cao, no one had ever seen such an opulent female burial site. “She had been wrapped in 20 layers of fabric, was wearing a crown and sported tattoos of snakes, spiders and religious symbols. Buried with her were more than two dozen weapons, among them clubs and spear throwers,” according to 1,700-Year-Old Mummy Faces Future With New Look. The discovery of such traditionally “male” objects was a first, and challenged previous patriarchal assumptions about Moche society.
Snakes are often associated with shamanism and clairvoyance. Interpreting her tattoo designs, Anthropology Professor John Verano of Tulane University says, “Spiders are associated with rain, as well as with human sacrifice and death, and the serpent is an important element associated in many ancient Andean cultures with deities, fertility, and human sacrifice as well.”
Journey through tattoo history at NAAMA’s Medium — our space to explore the ever-changing human relationship to tattoos, chronicle their complex history, and celebrate the empowering future of body art evolution.
