Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/08/29/infrared-cameras-reveal-tattoo.html
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Surprised that this is a relative first:
According to Gobeil, about a dozen other mummies have been found with tattoos of simple shapes, usually around the belly, which would be thought to offer magical protection during pregnancy.I would think tattoos to be common to humans ever since we figured out how to get ink delivered subcutaneously.
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The kids these days getting their tattoos… You think they’re giving any thought to how it’s going to look 3,000 years later when they’re mummified? Not a bit.
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Possibly creepy in the context of being a 3000-year-old mummy — and what does not in that context? — but I’d say they’d’ve looked pretty cool back in the day.
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The other tattoos (like, for example, Ötzi’s), were lines and dots that seem to have purely medicinal purposes. What’s new here is that there are actual hieroglyphics with symbolic/religious meaning. But this wasn’t rare, either - there’s the known imagery of Egyptian priestesses with animal “paintings” on their bodies, which this reveals were most likely actually tattoos as well.
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