Tattooing has been practiced around the world since the Neolithic times. Mummified preserved skin dating back thousands of years have been found as well as ancient tattoo tools. The oldest discovery of tattooed human skin is Otzi the Iceman dating to between 3370 and 3100 BC. Otzi had 61 tattoos. Mummies from archaeological sites have been found in Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Egypt, Sudan, the Philippines and the Andes. Preserved tattoos on ancient mummies reveal that tattooing has been practiced throughout the world for millennia.
Ethnographic and historical texts reveal that tattooing has been practiced by just about every human culture in historic times.
Egyptian mummies that date to the time of the great pyramids, over 4000 years ago, had tattoos. Ancient Greeks used tattoos from the 5th century on to communicate among spies. Romans marked criminals and slaves with tattoos. In Japan, criminals were tattooed across their forehead. The Maya, Inca and Aztec used tattooing in rituals. Early Britons used tattoos in certain ceremonies.
Danes, Norse and Saxons had their family crests tattooed onto their bodies. During the crusades, some Europeans tattooed a cross on their hands or arms to mark their participation and indicate their desire for a Christian burial should they not return.
The Tahitian word for tattoo, tatau, means to mark or strike. This word refers to some of the traditional modes of application where ink is “tapped” into the skin by using sharp sticks or bone. Peoples in the Arctic used a needle to pull carbon-embedded thread under the skin to create linear designs. An others have traditionally cut designs into the skin and then rubbed the incisions with ink or ashes.