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World's Oldest Tattoo Written In Soot

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 15, 2009 @12:34PM from the Hauslabjoch-ink dept.

ewenc writes "A series of tattoos belonging to Otzi the 5300 year-old Tyrolean Iceman are made of soot, reports New Scientist. Mountain climbers discovered Otzi's mummified body in the Austrian-Italian alps in 1991. What's left of his skin was littered with simple cross and line markings. Electron microscopy and spectroscopy now show that Otzi's tats are made of double-bonded carbon indicative of soot, as well as silicate crystals that probably came from rocks surrounding a fire pit."

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Re:Acupunture points. by IICV · 2009-07-15 14:02 · Score: 4, Insightful

According to Wikipedia, there's about 360 acupuncture points. According to the article, the guy's skin was "littered with tattoos".
Birthday paradox, anyone?