This infrared image shows the male mummy known as Gebelein Man. On his arm, you can see his tattoos.
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Earliest Ancient Egyptian Tattoos Found on Mummies
The 5,000-year-old mummies have tattooed images of sheep, bulls, and mysterious lines.
Ancient Egyptians were getting inked up earlier than we thought.
A new analysis of two mummies shows the pair were sporting tattoos. The mummies belong to a collection of six found in 1900. They were named the Gebelein mummies after the region in which they were found. Now in the possession of the British Museum, they were reanalyzed as part of an ongoing project to reexamine valuable artifacts.
Both individuals date anywhere from 3351 B.C. to 3017 B.C., making them some of the earliest known bearers of tattoos. The next known example of ancient Egyptians getting tattoos doesn't appear for more than a millennia later.
Only Ötzi the Ice Man, a cave man dating back to about 3370 B.C., has earlier
