If tattoos tend to fade over the course of one’s lifetime, consider the aging of 1,200-year-old mom tattoos.
A team of international researchers, for the first time, used lasers to reveal the tattoos on the corpses of Peruvian corpses. Using this technique, detailed in a January 13 study published in the journal PNASthe researchers found beautiful and intricate designs, and (literally) shed light on the intricate calligraphy practices of the ancient Chancay culture. Their findings reveal a higher level of artistic skill in pre-Columbian Peru than previously thought.
Tattoos have been around as a form of artistic expression for over 5,000 years, with the oldest example of the famous Otzi the Iceman, who died in the Alps between Austria and Italy around 3300 BCE. However, because remains of ancient soft tissue are rare and body paintings fade and bleed over time—a condition that apparently worsens as the body decomposes after death—archaeologists have few opportunities to study the ancient art form. In revealing opportunities, researchers have historically used infrared imaging to analyze designs, which failed to reveal the details of tattoos, according to the study.
A recent team used a technique called laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF), which uses lasers to reveal details within soft tissue, to study tattoos on Peruvian mums. Paleontologists have used LSF for years to study dinosaur fossils, he said Science Alertbut this marks the first time this technique has been used to analyze ancient tattoos on submerged human remains—and the results were positive.
“Basically we turn the skin into a light bulb,” said Thomas G. Kaye of the non-profit Foundation for Scientific Advancement in Arizona, who participated in the study, as reported by the Associated Press. In other words, the researchers used lasers to make non-tattooed skin glow in stark contrast to tattooed skin, revealing subtle ink designs invisible to the naked eye.
The researchers, including a scientist from José Faustino Sánchez Carrión National University in Peru, studied more than 100 approximately 1,200-year-old submerged human remains belonging to the Chancay culture. The Chancays were a pre-Columbian people who lived on the central coast of present-day Peru between 900 and 1533 CE, according to the study. Now recognized for their cloths, they eventually entered the Inca Empire.
Although most of the tattoos on the Chancay mummies were “amorphous patches with ill-defined edges,” some of the designs had lines between 0.0039 and 0.0079 inches (0.1 to 0.2 millimeters), the researchers wrote in the study. These details “show the fact that each ink dot was deliberately placed by hand with great skill, creating a variety of beautiful geometric and zoomorphic patterns,” they added. “We can assume that this technique involved something sharper than a modern #12 tattoo needle, perhaps a single cactus needle or a sharp animal bone based on known materials found among artists.”
The researchers then compared the tattoo designs to other material cultures of Chancay, including pottery, textiles, and rock art, and determined that the tattoos are the “most complex art” of the culture found so far.
“Thus this study reveals higher levels of artistic complexity in pre-Columbian Peru than previously known, which increases the level of artistic development found in South America during this period,” explained the researchers.
Perhaps this first successful use of LSF to study tattoos on mummies will lead to the discovery of many ancient designs that will give modern tattoos a run for their money.