Photo: Michael Pittman and Thomas G Kaye
Despite seeming like a modern innovation, tattoos have decorated people’s bodies for millennia. Now, with the help of a new laser-based technique, researchers have uncovered ancient tattoos on centuries-old Peruvian mummies like never before.
A study recently published in the journal PNAS catalogs this innovative technique, which involves laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF). Unlike ultraviolet (UV) light, LSF reveals carbon-based black tattoo ink with remarkable clarity, producing images based on the sample’s fluorescence. The technique ultimately allows tattooed skin to appear as bright white, reducing any potential disruptions caused by bleeding or fading over time.
Employing this mode of examination, researchers focused on over 100 mummified remains from the Chancay, a civilization that flourished in Peru from 900 CE to 1533 CE. The culture is particularly celebrated for its intricate pottery and textiles, all of which exhibit an elegant command over geometrical patterns and motifs.
It’s no surprise, then, that the tattoos unearthed by researchers assume similar designs. Though only three individuals were “found to have high-detailed tattoos made up of fine lines only 0.1 – 0.2 mm [0.004 to 0.008 inch] thick,” according to co-author Michael Pittman, a paleobiologist at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, they nevertheless offered critical insights into the Chancay’s visual culture.
“[The tattoos were] predominantly geometric patterns featuring triangles, which are also found on other Chancay artistic media like pottery and textiles,” Pittman tells Live Science. Other Chancay tattoos, Pittman continues, include vine-like and animal designs.
Even so, little is known about the Chancay culture, having developed in the later part of the Inca Empire. This study seeks to reverse that fact, presenting richer details about the Chancay civilization and its relationship to art production, social class, and body modification.
“In many societies, tattoos are used to mark people with special status,” Kasia Szremski, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 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.”
To learn more about Chancay tattoos and the research team’s methodology, read the full study in PNAS.
A recent study uncovered centuries-old Chancay tattoos on Peruvian mummies with astounding clarity using a laser-based technique.
Tattoos from the Chancay culture of coastal Peru. Figure from “Hidden artistic complexity of Peru’s Chancay culture discovered in tattoos by laser-stimulated fluorescence,” published January 13, 2025, in PNAS.
Researchers found that the tattoos resembled Chancay ceramics and textiles in their geometric motifs.
Art and location of the Chancay culture. Figure from “Hidden artistic complexity of Peru’s Chancay culture discovered in tattoos by laser-stimulated fluorescence,” published January 13, 2025, in PNAS.
Mantle border fragment of funerary cloth from the Chancay culture, c. 1000-1470 CE. (Photo: Daderot via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Textile fragment with design of stylized birds and humans from the Chancay culture. (Photo: LACMA via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Sources: Hidden artistic complexity of Peru’s Chancay culture discovered in tattoos by laser-stimulated fluorescence; Lasers reveal hidden patterns in tattoos of 1,200-year-old Peru mummies
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