10 Ancient Body Modification Practices

Tattoos are highly common today, but they have very old origins. The earliest example found is on Ötzi the Iceman, the natural mummy found in the Alps. He lived around 3,300 BC and had tattooed a series of dots and small crosses along his lower spine, right knee joint, and ankle joints. Due to their placement researchers believe they may have been used for medicinal reasons, to relieve joint pain.

More intricate tattoos were found on Scythian warriors and on a female spiritual leader of the Pazyryk people living in modern-day Altai around 500 BC. This included elaborate and colorful images of animals, mythical and real, and of curving lines.

The ancient Peruvian Moche people used cactus spines or needles to push charcoal pigment beneath the skin, creating tattoos with geometric designs or animal forms.

Scans of Egyptian mummies have revealed that they got tattoos too, for example a female mummy from 700 AD had the name Michael and a small cross tattooed on her inner thigh.

The 3,800 year old mummies found in the Chinese Tarim Basin also had many tattoos. This included a female with moons and ovals tattooed on her face and males with facial animal tattoos.