Scientists Are Using Lasers to Reveal Intricate Tattoos on Peruvian Mummies

These days, more than 30 percent of Americans sport tattoos—but there’s nothing new about our fascination with body art. As tattoos take over contemporary culture, scientists are looking to the past and uncovering the secrets of centuries-old ink.

By examining mummified remains using a technique called laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF), researchers are unveiling body art from the Chancay culture, a group that lived on the Peruvian coast between roughly 900 and 1500 C.E., according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“LSF technology lets us see tattoos in their full glory,” says study co-author Thomas G. Kaye, a paleontologist at the Foundation for Scientific Advancement, in a statement. “The Chancay culture, known for its mass-produced textiles, also invested significant effort in personal body art. This could point to tattoos as a second major artistic focus, perhaps carrying deep cultural or spiritual significance.”

Tattoos fade over time, making them difficult for scientists to study centuries later. But with the help of LSF, experts are able to uncover the original lines of the body art.

The technique involves shining a laser onto the mummy so that the skin glows, creating a sharp contrast with the ink that can be seen by taking long-exposure photographs. The team studied tattoos with a variety of patterns on more than 100 mummies.

“To some extent, ancient Chancay tattoos show a lot of parallels to the variation in design and significance we can observe among tattoos today,” study co-author Michael Pittman, a paleobiologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, tells New Scientist’s James Woodford.

Some tattoos were geometric, featuring shapes like triangles and diamonds. Others included vine-like patterns and depictions of animals.

The researchers were especially intrigued by the thinness of some of the lines that made up the intricate designs, finding the level of precision to be “higher than associated pottery, textiles and rock art,” per the study.

“We were most surprised by just how detailed the Chancay tattoos could be,” Pittman tells Popular Science’s Laura Baisas. “The 0.1 [to] 0.2 millimeter lines we discovered are finer than any line a standard #12 modern tattoo needles can produce, so the level of skill and effort that was required from the Chancay artist really blew our minds.”

However, not all experts agree that LSF is a particularly novel or effective method for studying tattoos.

Aaron Deter-Wolf, a prehistoric archaeologist at the Tennessee Division of Archaeology who was not involved in the research, says that the study didn’t show why LSF is superior to other more common techniques—such as multispectral imaging—for examining centuries-old tattoos

“This is a cool additional tool in our kit, but it’s not groundbreaking,” he tells the New York Times’ Becky Ferreira.

Kasia Szremski, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who was not involved in the study, tells Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove that historians don’t know much about the Chancay culture, and learning more about their tattooing practices will provide new insights into their daily lives.

“In many societies, tattoos are used to mark people with special status,” she says. “By better understanding what Chancay tattoos look like, we can start looking for patterns that may help us identify different types, classes or statuses of people.”

The study’s authors say their work is “just the tip of the iceberg,” and they hope LSF will help scientists examine tattoos from a variety of cultures throughout history.

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.