where did tattoos originate
For thousands of years, humans have marked their bodies with tattoos. A permanent design, which sometimes serve as a status symbol, an amulet, a declarations of love, adornments, signs of religious beliefs and even permanents signs of punishment.
Perhaps the most oldest tattoo comes from the ‘Iceman’, a frozen mummy who is 5,200 years old and found in what is known today as Maori. Before the iceman was found, the earliest known tattoos were thought to originate in Egypt. Female mummies that dated back to 2000 BC. But, since the discovery of the Iceman, that date of 2000 BC was pushed back further another 1000 years.
With further examination of the Iceman, his tattoos were distributed with dots and small crosses on his lower spine, his right knee and his ankle joints, these all correspond to areas with strain-induced degeneration. This suggests that the tattoos may have been applied to alleviate joint pain, that the tattoo was therapeutic.
There is evidence that women would tattoo their bodies and limbs in 4000 to 3500 B.C. Because this seemed to be an exclusively female practice in ancient Egypt, and that these tattoos are status markings signifying a high priestess or a royal concubine, and not, as previously thought by male excavators as markings denoting women of dubious status. It appears, in ancient Egypt, the reason for the restriction of only women having tattoos was a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth, also to guard against sexual diseases.
In the Altai Mountain region, the Scythian Pazyryk were another ancient culture that employed tattoos. Back in 1948, a 2,400 year old body of a male Scythian was discovered; the Scythian was preserved in ice in Siberia and his limbs and torso were covered with ornate tattoos depicting mythical animals. And, in 1993, a Scythian woman was found with similar tattoos of mythical creatures on her shoulders, thumb and wrists. She was found in a tomb in Altai. The tattoos were marks of nobility for Scythians.
