The tattoos of 1200-year-old mummies from Peru can now be seen in exquisite detail, showing fine markings that may have been made with cactus needles or animal bones
By James Woodford
13 January 2025
The tattooed hand of a 1200-year-old mummy from Peru
Michael Pittman and Thomas G Kaye
The intricate details of tattoos inked more than 1200 years ago have been made visible by scanning South American mummies with lasers.
The mummies, belonging to a pre-Hispanic people known as the Chancay, were found in 1981 at the Cerro Colorado cemetery in the Huaura valley of Peru.
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While it was clear to the naked eye that many of the 100 mummies were tattooed, the ink had bled beyond the boundaries of the original designs and also faded, making it impossible to see what the original markings would have looked like.
In a new study, Michael Pittman at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues ran lasers over the specimens in a dark room and took long-exposure photographs. The lasers caused the skin to glow brightly, producing a stark contrast with the non-fluorescent tattoo ink.
This technique, which causes no damage to the mummies, has never been used on tattoos before. Importantly, it shows not just where ink is on the surface but also in the deeper layers of the skin, says Pittman.