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World's Oldest Tattoo Written In Soot

Posted by samzenpus on 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."

3 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Tattoos or mody scarring? by coplate · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe they we burned in with hot rock edges?

  2. Re:But what about.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is the first post ever on slashdot? Can someone point to it or repost it?

  3. Accidently tattooed myself by DollyTheSheep · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While I admire artistic tattoos, I probably won't get one for myself. The idea of something on my skin that is forever, but is perhaps not looking good or cool forever repels me.

    But when I was a kid, I accidentally tattooed myself, atleast with one dot of ink :-) It was in arts education in school. We did calligraphy with old fashioned dip pens. I had the habit then to gnaw on all my writing utensils like pencils, pens etc. So I did that with my dip pen too. Something fell on the floor, I bent down to get it and ...ouch... I had the tip of the nib in my thigh. It's still a small greenish dot after 30 years.