Ink-redible! Scientists use lasers to reveal highly detailed tattoos on 1,200-year-old mummies from Peru
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Anyone getting a tattoo nowadays will likely have access to numbing cream and be inked using an electric machine. So spare a thought for these mummies – whose intricate designs were likely etched on using cactus needle spikes and sharpened animal bones.
![[The complex patterns were inked with a finely pointed object, possibly a single cactus needle or sharpened animal bone, the team said]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/13/13/94037097-0-image-a-50_1736775250859.jpg)
Researchers have used lasers to reveal highly detailed tattoos on the preserved remains of people who lived 1,200 years ago in Peru. The team inspected more than 100 mummified individuals from the Chancay culture – a civilisation that began mass producing ceramics, textiles and metals around 900CE.
![[Experts discovered a total of 61 tattoos on Ötzi's body using different wavelengths of light to pick them out on the mummy's darkened skin and in December 2015 they were confirmed to be the world's oldest]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/03/01/08/49AFC97900000578-5448863-image-a-1_1519893424245.jpg)
The preserved skin of the mummies shone brightly with the lasers, in contrast with the black tattoo ink. And the resulting high-contrast images revealed previously hidden details of the tattoo designs. The complex patterns were inked with a finely pointed object, possibly a single cactus needle or sharpened animal bone, the team said.
They also found the artistic details and precision of the tattoos exceed the designs seen on other pottery, textiles and rock art from the time – suggesting that some tattoos were the product of special effort. Researchers have used lasers to reveal highly detailed tattoos on the preserved remains of people who lived 1,200 years ago in Peru.
The complex patterns were inked with a finely pointed object, possibly a single cactus needle or sharpened animal bone, the team said. The team, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
