Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Thanks so much for 30,000 subscribers! To celebrate, I went and got a tattoo of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and spoke with Aaron Deter-Wolf all about the archaeology of tattooing.
Get Ancient Ink here:
UK: amzn.to/44H6Z5Y
US: amzn.to/450QDFf
Get Painted People here:
US: amzn.to/455CVRz
UK: amzn.to/473BfcZ
Big thank you to Conz Thomas for the fresh ink! Check out his IG: instagram.com/conzthomastattoo/?hl=en
👉🏼 Get early access to all my videos and help me choose what to put out next here: patreon.com/digitwithraven
Watch Next
○ A Brief History of Pillows | Ancient History Day 2021 youtu.be/XxTVxgTiEBY
○ The Biggest Archaeological Discovery of the 20th Century?! China's Terracotta Army youtu.be/RqDIjwnA0ZY
✅ Let's connect!
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/digitwithraven
TWITTER: twitter.com/digitwithraven
MY GEAR
○ Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder amzn.to/35SGJIe
○ Microphone amzn.to/3clFIuR
○ Teleprompter amzn.to/35QX1RW
○ Lighting amzn.to/35QIW7j
○ Camera: Sony A6400 amzn.to/3Ik8YEE
The oldest evidence we have of preserved tattoos on human skin is from 5200 years ago on Ötzi the Iceman, who lived during the Copper Age sometime between 3350-3100 BCE. I’m planning a whole video on Ötzi himself in the future, but for context, Ötzi was discovered by hikers in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps along the border between Austria and Italy. Ötzi has a total of 61 tattoos scattered across his back, legs, arm and chest. Most are clusters lines, apart from crosses located on the back of his right knee and his right ankle.
Before Otzi was declared the oldest person known to have tattoos, the mummified remains of a man belonging to the South American Chinchorro culture who had a thin moustache-type tattoo on his upper lip was another candidate for this top spot. The Chinchorro culture was a fishing society that existed before the invention of pottery in what is today the coastal regions of Chile and southern Peru between around 7000 and 1100 BCE. The Chinchorro people also practised deliberate mummification very early - because you can have both deliberate and natural mummification happen all over the world, and they are actually the oldest known human mummies to date!
RESOURCES (Other than Ancient Ink and Painted People)
C. P. Jones (1987). Stigma: Tattooing and Branding in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. The Journal of Roman Studies, 77(), 139–155. doi:10.2307/300578
Tattooing in Ancient Egypt By Anne Austin - arce.org/resource/tattooing-ancient-egypt
What Ötzi the Iceman’s Tattoos Reveal About Copper Age Medical Practices by Meilan Solly, 2018 smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244
The World's Oldest Tattoos by Aaron Deter-Wolf and Benoît Robitaille
https://www.academia.edu/15224368/The_Worlds_Oldest_Tattoos
Dermatostiksia (tattooing): An act of stigmatization in ancient Greek culture
G. Kyriakoua et al. actasdermo.org/en-dermatostiksia-tattooing-an-act-stigmatization-articulo-S1578219021002456
Gates St-Pierre, C. (2017). Needles and bodies: A microwear analysis of experimental bone tattooing instruments. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.10.0
Friedman, R., Antoine, D., Talamo, S., Reimer, P. J., Taylor, J. H., Wills, B., & Mannino, M. A. (2018). Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world’s earliest figural tattoos. Journal of Archaeological Science, 92, 116–125. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2018.02.002
Samadelli, M., Melis, M., Miccoli, M., Vigl, E. E., & Zink, A. R. (2015). Complete mapping of the tattoos of the 5300-year-old Tyrolean Iceman. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 16(5), 753–758. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2014.12.005
**************
My top archaeology 101 book
amzn.to/2EcgVtQ
**************
Some of these links are affiliate. If you purchase anything from these links I may earn a small commission. This really helps in supporting the channel. I am not promoting anything that I do not 100% recommend or would not use myself!
#tattoo #Archaeology #tattoos #ancienthistory
Thanks so much for 30,000 subscribers! To celebrate, I went and got a tattoo of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and spoke with Aaron Deter-Wolf all about the archaeology of tattooing.
Get Ancient Ink here:
UK: amzn.to/44H6Z5Y
US: amzn.to/450QDFf
Get Painted People here:
US: amzn.to/455CVRz
UK: amzn.to/473BfcZ
Big thank you to Conz Thomas for the fresh ink! Check out his IG: instagram.com/conzthomastattoo/?hl=en
👉🏼 Get early access to all my videos and help me choose what to put out next here: patreon.com/digitwithraven
Watch Next
○ A Brief History of Pillows | Ancient History Day 2021 youtu.be/XxTVxgTiEBY
○ The Biggest Archaeological Discovery of the 20th Century?! China's Terracotta Army youtu.be/RqDIjwnA0ZY
✅ Let's connect!
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/digitwithraven
TWITTER: twitter.com/digitwithraven
MY GEAR
○ Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder amzn.to/35SGJIe
○ Microphone amzn.to/3clFIuR
○ Teleprompter amzn.to/35QX1RW
○ Lighting amzn.to/35QIW7j
○ Camera: Sony A6400 amzn.to/3Ik8YEE
The oldest evidence we have of preserved tattoos on human skin is from 5200 years ago on Ötzi the Iceman, who lived during the Copper Age sometime between 3350-3100 BCE. I’m planning a whole video on Ötzi himself in the future, but for context, Ötzi was discovered by hikers in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps along the border between Austria and Italy. Ötzi has a total of 61 tattoos scattered across his back, legs, arm and chest. Most are clusters lines, apart from crosses located on the back of his right knee and his right ankle.
Before Otzi was declared the oldest person known to have tattoos, the mummified remains of a man belonging to the South American Chinchorro culture who had a thin moustache-type tattoo on his upper lip was another candidate for this top spot. The Chinchorro culture was a fishing society that existed before the invention of pottery in what is today the coastal regions of Chile and southern Peru between around 7000 and 1100 BCE. The Chinchorro people also practised deliberate mummification very early - because you can have both deliberate and natural mummification happen all over the world, and they are actually the oldest known human mummies to date!
RESOURCES (Other than Ancient Ink and Painted People)
C. P. Jones (1987). Stigma: Tattooing and Branding in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. The Journal of Roman Studies, 77(), 139–155. doi:10.2307/300578
Tattooing in Ancient Egypt By Anne Austin - arce.org/resource/tattooing-ancient-egypt
What Ötzi the Iceman’s Tattoos Reveal About Copper Age Medical Practices by Meilan Solly, 2018 smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244
The World's Oldest Tattoos by Aaron Deter-Wolf and Benoît Robitaille
https://www.academia.edu/15224368/The_Worlds_Oldest_Tattoos
Dermatostiksia (tattooing): An act of stigmatization in ancient Greek culture
G. Kyriakoua et al. actasdermo.org/en-dermatostiksia-tattooing-an-act-stigmatization-articulo-S1578219021002456
Gates St-Pierre, C. (2017). Needles and bodies: A microwear analysis of experimental bone tattooing instruments. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.10.0
Friedman, R., Antoine, D., Talamo, S., Reimer, P. J., Taylor, J. H., Wills, B., & Mannino, M. A. (2018). Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world’s earliest figural tattoos. Journal of Archaeological Science, 92, 116–125. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2018.02.002
Samadelli, M., Melis, M., Miccoli, M., Vigl, E. E., & Zink, A. R. (2015). Complete mapping of the tattoos of the 5300-year-old Tyrolean Iceman. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 16(5), 753–758. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2014.12.005
**************
My top archaeology 101 book
amzn.to/2EcgVtQ
**************
Some of these links are affiliate. If you purchase anything from these links I may earn a small commission. This really helps in supporting the channel. I am not promoting anything that I do not 100% recommend or would not use myself!
#tattoo #Archaeology #tattoos #ancienthistory
