World's Oldest Tattoo Written In Soot 68
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."
Re:Tattoos or mody scarring? (Score:2, Insightful)
George Orwell spent some time writing about english coal miners, and he said that they all had blue tattoos on their heads and back. This was because every time they bumped into something the wounds would get filled with coal dust. The wounds would heal over and the dust would stay forming a tattoo.
I have a few lines on my fingertips because they got pretty cut up when I was learning to play guitar. This was at the same time I was working at a warehouse where it was impossible to keep my hands clean for more than a few minutes.
Re:Acupunture points. (Score:5, Insightful)
According to Wikipedia, there's about 360 acupuncture [wikipedia.org] points. According to the article, the guy's skin was "littered with tattoos".
Birthday paradox, anyone?