Mummies' ancient tattoos come under laser focus

With a tool often used in the study of dinosaur fossils, scientists uncovered new details in ornate tattoos on the skin of members of the Chancay culture of Peru

- BECKY FERREIRA

A CULTURE FLOURISHED ALONG the central Peruvian coast from about AD 900 to 1500. Called the Chancay, they left behind a wealth of cultural remains, including intricate tattoos that are preserved to this day on the skin of mummified individuals.

New details of these tattoos that were previously hidden to the naked eye, including finely traced lines, were described in a study published recently.

After illuminating the mummies with laser-stimulated fluorescence, or LSF, an imaging tool that until now had never been applied to tattoos, scientists discovered lines 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters wide, narrower than work produced by most modern tattoo needles.

"We were shocked by just how fine the tattoo lines were in our LSF images," said Michael Pittman, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an author of the new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in an email. "We immediately knew that what we were seeing was special."