If tattoos tend to fade within one human lifetime, imagine the wear and tear on the tattoos of 1,200-year-old mummies.
An international team of researchers has used lasers for the first time to reveal tattoos on mummies from Peru. Using this technique, detailed in January 13 study published in the journal PNASresearchers have uncovered beautifully intricate designs and (literally) shed light on the intricate tattooing practices of the ancient Chancay culture. Their discoveries reveal a higher level of artistic skills in pre-Columbian Peru than previously thought.
Tattoos as a form of artistic expression have existed for more than 5000 years, s the oldest example belonging to the famous Otzi the Icemanwho died in the Alps between Austria and Italy around 3300 BC. However, because ancient soft tissue remains are rare and tattoos fade and bleed over time—a condition that apparently worsens as the body decomposes after death—archaeologists have little opportunity to study the ancient art form. On the occasions that do arise, researchers have historically used infrared imaging to analyze designs, which still fails to reveal the finer details of a tattoo, according to the study.
Recently, the team used a technique called laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF), which uses lasers to reveal details within soft tissue, to study tattoos on Peruvian mummies. Paleontologists have used LSF for years to study dinosaur remains, according to Scientific alertbut this is the first time this technique has been used to analyze ancient tattoos on mummified human remains—and the results were fantastic.
“We’re basically turning the skin into a light bulb,” said Thomas G. Kaye of the nonprofit Foundation for the Advancement of Science in Arizona, who participated in the study. Associated Press. In other words, the researchers used lasers to make non-tattooed skin glow in stark contrast to tattooed skin, even revealing delicate ink drawings invisible to the naked eye.
The researchers, including a scientist from the National University José Faustino Sánchez Carrión in Peru, studied more than 100 approximately 1,200-year-old mummified human remains belonging to the Chancay culture. The Chancay were a pre-Columbian people who lived along the central coast of present-day Peru between about 900 and 1533, according to the study. Now famous for their textiles, they were eventually absorbed into the Inca Empire.
Although most of the tattoos on the Chancay mummies were “amorphous patches with poorly defined edges,” some of the designs had lines between 0.0039 and 0.0079 inches (0.1 to 0.2 millimeters) thick, the researchers wrote in the study . These details “reflect the fact that each dot of ink was deliberately placed by hand with great skill, creating a series of exquisite geometric and zoomorphic patterns,” they added. “We can assume that this technique involved a pointed object finer than a standard #12 modern tattoo needle, possibly a single cactus needle or sharpened animal bone based on the known materials available to the artists.”
The researchers then compared the tattoo designs to other Chancay material culture, including ceramics, textiles and rock art, and found the tattoos to be the culture’s “most complex art” found to date.
“The study therefore reveals higher levels of artistic complexity in pre-Columbian Peru than previously thought, extending the degree of artistic development found in South America at the time,” the researchers explained.
Perhaps this first successful use of LSF to study mummy tattoos will lead to the discovery of more ancient designs that will also give modern tattoos a run for their money.