Nearly everyone has an opinion about tattoos, and maybe a few on their own skin. But the stories behind them get strange fast. A 5,300-year-old mummy, ink that travels inside your body and a business that frames the skin of the dead sound made up. They are all true.
1. How old are the oldest tattoos, and what were they for?
The oldest tattoos ever found belong to Ötzi the Iceman, and scientists think they were a form of medicine. Ötzi's mummified body, about 5,300 years old, carries 61 tattoos in total, as revealed by newer scans.
Many of the marks sit on the lower back, legs and wrists, in places that line up with acupuncture points used to treat back pain. Ötzi had signs of joint wear in those areas.
If that reading is right, it could predate the first recorded acupuncture in China by about 2,000 years. It is still a hypothesis, since nobody can ask him, but it is a striking one.
2. Does tattoo ink stay where the artist put it?
No. A lot of it ends up in your lymph nodes. In 2017, scientists in France tracked tattoo pigment in human tissue and confirmed that ink particles travel from the skin and lodge there.
Then a Swedish study from Lund University found tattooed people had a 21% higher risk of lymphoma. That sounds scary, but lymphoma is a very rare disease, so the increase sits on a very low baseline risk.
The study also doesn't prove cause and effect. It found a link, not proof that ink causes cancer. Still, it is a good reason to know what your ink is doing after you leave the shop.
3. What do families do with a loved one's tattoo after death?
Some turn the real skin into framed art. A mortician removes the tattooed skin and sends it to a company called Save My Ink Forever, which preserves it.
It is then framed like a piece of art and returned to the family within three months. The company says families receive the actual tattoo, not a photo.
For some families it is a deeply personal way to keep a piece of someone who wore their story on their skin. For others, it is a hard no. Which side are you on?
