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The question of "How old is the art of tattooing?" and "When and where did it begin?" are seemingly impossible questions to answer.
As many times as man can uncover yet an older mummy compared to the latest find, they have as well uncovered more and more dated proof of mankind's affinity towards tattoos and other forms of ancient body modifications. The oldest archiological find to date is compiled from a collection of female mummy's from an Egyptian tribe dating back well over 2200BC years. The mummy's skins were decorated with simple stripe like bands around the legs and arms as well as simple dot patters found in various places of their mummified remains. The oldest mummy found with proof of tattoos before this, was "Oetzi" the Ice Man found high in Otzal Alps near Hauslabjoch in Northern Italy. His remains were decorated with 12 religious cross tattoos. As the scientists preformed a CT scan on the Ice Man, astonishingly enough, the tattoos were proven to have been tattooed on various parts of the mans body, which had shown signs of arthritis well before the tattoo had been put there, posing the question, was tattooing possibly an early spiritual way of healing one's self from injury and or reoccurring pain? This mummy, "the Ice Man" was roughly 5000 years old, the Egyptian Ladies date at least 50,000 years before that. I would want to bet that if we could find some earlier peoples, that yet another 40,000 to 45,000 years gap would only continue to produce mummified remains who are as well adorned in ancient tattoos and other forms of body modifications. So let me now take you on a little journey through time, tribes and and the oh so interesting history of tattooing.

Is it possible that tattooing and body modification went as far back as Biblical Times? Leviticus 19:28, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print or place any marks upon you" I realize that this pretty much says not to get a tattoo, but undeniably it does make reference to people "marking" or "cutting" things into their skin. Revelations 13:15 and verses 16 and 17 reads in part..."both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be marked on the right hand, or forehead, so that no one can buy or sell, who does not have the, that is, the name of the beast. Also in Revelations 13:15 it says those who don't worship the image of the beast are killed, verse 16 shows that "the beast" requires an ID demonstrating that a person does indeed worship blasphemy. Isaiah

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