The intricate tattoos of animal forms and geometric shapes were revealed when researchers scanned the mummies with lasers.

Kaye et al., PNAS (2025) If tattoos are prone to fading within a single human lifetime, imagine the wear-and-tear on the tattoos of 1,200-year-old mummies. An international team of researchers has ...

And in December 2015 they were confirmed to be the world's oldest - beating markings on an unidentified South American Chinchorro mummy. Experts had thought the South American mummy with a ...