Tattoos in Ancient Egypt

Tattoos in Ancient Egypt

Not that long ago, in Western industrialized culture, tattooing was associated exclusively with those perceived as "primitive", "marginal" or even "criminal." Sailors and convicts were associated with tattoos as were women of a certain repute and perhaps the occasional nobleman gone slumming. This attitude has changed drastically in the last decade or so. Tattooing has become popular enough among the general population as to seem virtually commonplace.

As the enthusiasm for tattoos continues to increase, so does the popularity of Egyptian motifs. Designs based on ancient Egyptian amulets are reasonably ubiquitous among Western tattoo fans: one observes quite a few ankhs, as well as djed pillars, uraeus cobras and eyes of Horus, magically reputed to protect whatever lies beneath. These designs, however, are all based on amulets: yes, these were valued by the ancient Egyptians but carved from metal or stone rather than engraved upon the flesh. As far as we know, these designs so beloved today were not used in that fashion thousands of years ago. This is particularly interesting because, also as far as we know, the history of tattooing starts in ancient Egypt.

The phrase "as far as we know" is key because body ornamentation is an ephemeral art.

Skin does not ordinarily survive in the archaeological context, with the exception of certain unique circumstances (the bog people of Northern Europe) or certain unique preservation techniques (the mummies of ancient Egypt.)

In the West, tattooing is most often associated with Polynesia because it was from there that the custom was most dramatically reintroduced to industrialized nations. However, the earliest documented evidence for the tattoo is in Egypt. Although most anthropologists believe that the eventually almost universal tradition emerged separately and individually among different cultures, those who prefer single origin theories find various convoluted routes to explain how tattooing arrived in Samoa from Egypt. Be that as it may, Egypt is generally accepted as the cradle of tattoo art as it is of so many other arts, although recent research indicates that tattooing may have actually entered Egyptian culture via Nubian influence. By the Middle Kingdom, in any event, tattoos seem to have been popular and culturally acceptable.

The earliest intimations of tattoos come from clay figurines dating to roughly 4000BCE. These female figurines are decorated with dots, dashes and lozenges. This was inconclusive evidence until the discovery and examination of preserved, mummified bodies, whose body designs closely echo the patterns etched on the figurines.

Among the best-preserved mummies is that of a woman from Thebes from Dynasty XI (2160-1994 BCE), whose tomb identifies her as Amunet, Priestess of Hathor. Sometimes described as a concubine of Mentuhotep II, tattoo patterns remain clearly visible on her flesh. No amulet designs for Amunet. Instead, she bore parallel lines on her arms and thighs and an elliptical pattern below the navel in the pelvic region.

Several other female mummies from this period also clearly show similar tattoos as well as ornamental scarring (cicatrization, still popular in parts of Africa) across the lower abdomen. The tattoos are all seemingly abstract: a series of dots, dashes and lozenges and for this reason they are often dismissed as random and meaningless. Yet in many ways the designs are similar to those sported by traditional, rural North African and Western Asian women. This strong non-representational geometric style is influenced by the precepts of Islam but also stretches its roots back farther into the past, back into the Paleolithic. Those dots and dashes, so abstract to the non-initiated, actually hold protective and fertility-promoting significance. The lozenges are anciently and traditionally connected to the primal female power of the universe, the Great Mother, so appropriate for a priestess of Hathor.

Why do people get tattooed anyway? Modern individuals may do it for all sorts of reasons, trivial or profound but ancient and traditional societies possess serious and conscious reasoning.

The traditional reasons for tattooing include:
to connect with the Divine.
as a tribute or act of sacrifice to a deity.
as a talisman, a permanent amulet that cannot be lost, to provide magical or medical protection.
Many traditional cultures also use tattoos on the flesh as a sort of passport to the world after death, although interestingly, with all the emphasis on the next world in ancient Egyptian culture, there is no indication that this was the case there.

Certainly, the connection between tattoos and the divine existed in ancient Egypt. Beyond the geometric designs so favored, the other designs discovered so far are intrinsically connected to religion. Mummies dating from roughly 1300 BCE are tattooed with pictographs symbolizing Neith, a prominent female deity with a militaristic bent. These are the only tattoos that at this point seem to have a link with male bearers.

The earliest known tattoo, which is not an abstraction, which is clearly a picture of something, is an image of the demi-god Bes. Bes' image appears as a tattoo on the thighs of dancers and musicians in many Egyptian paintings. Female Nubian mummies from around 400BCE have been discovered with Bes placed similarly on their flesh.

Bes' appearance leads to an interesting point. Up until very recently in the West, tattoos have been considered very macho, exclusively male. If the evidence of the mummies can be given credence, it appears in ancient Egypt, quite the opposite scenario was true. Tattooing seems to be virtually an exclusively female province. Perhaps there isn't enough conclusive evidence to report that only women wore tattoos. There are images of male figures bearing what may be tattoo marks. However, Bes as a god throws the art back into the women's camp.

Bes is a very interesting little spirit. Not a grand creator, not a giver of profound societal gifts, he is a very basic protector of the home, a little male figure devoted to women's concerns. Half dwarf, half lion, he is the only Egyptian god traditionally shown full-face rather than in profile. Bes dances and bangs his noisy percussion instruments to drive off evil spirits. Ugly little Bes was believed to have a special love for women and children, to expend his energy protecting them. A trickster and slightly disreputable, with a somewhat lascivious reputation, Bes' image was everywhere in ancient Egypt: carved onto headboards and beds, painted onto walls, worn as amuletic jewelry and tattooed upon the flesh. (Bes' presence is still reputed to grace Egypt: rumor has it that he enjoys springing out and surprising the unwary tourist at Karnak!)

What kind of protection did the women who wore his image expect from Bes? As an amulet, Bes was expected to provide easy childbirth, conception itself and to protect the subsequent children. Perhaps he was a special patron of dancers and musicians, a patron saint of sorts. Because the pictorial images of tattooed women often include dancers, acrobats and musicians, some consider that his tattoo might have been expected to protect against venereal disease or dangerous male clientele, the assumption being that the tattooed women were also prostitutes. It's very hard at this stage to determine how much of this is true and how much Western bias. Because tattoos in the West were considered disreputable, there was an automatic association among some early anthropologists that these ancient tattooed women had to be "that" kind of woman. Perhaps they were and perhaps they weren't. Because of the placement of the tattoos- on the upper thigh, over the pelvic and pubic region- there certainly seems to be a reproductive and/or erotic component to these tattoos. From our vantage point, at this time at least, it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly the nature of that component. Perhaps these tattoos did mark and protect women in certain professions or perhaps it was just considered visually erotic and seductive and nothing more than that?

Tattooing has been discouraged in conventional Islamic societies over the most recent centuries however the tradition does remain among enclaves of Berbers and Bedouins, including those in Egypt. There seems to be many similarities among the nature of tattoos among these people and those of ancient Egypt. Just as seems to have been the case in ancient Egypt, tattooing is almost exclusively female. Designs are abstract and geometric, representational and the motivation for the tattoo is virtually always a quest for spiritual and/or medical protection or a desire for some sort of reproductive faculty: conception or ease of childbirth. In general, these tattooed women of today are very traditional, rural and religious women, often pillars of their communities, not disreputable in any sense. Should an anthropologist ever solicit their opinions as to the meaning and placement of ancient Egyptian tattoo practices, their insights might be very interesting.

* Those interested in the ancient history of these geometric designs, on tattoos, artwork and in cave paintings, and in the spiritual traditions from which they emerge, will find interesting reading and a plethora of striking images in Buffie Johnson's Lady of the Beasts (HarperCollins, 1988)

Tattoos - The Ancient and Mysterious History

Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs—sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personal—have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment. Joann Fletcher, research fellow in the department of archaeology at the University of York in Britain, describes the history of tattoos and their cultural significance to people around the world, from the famous " Iceman," a 5,200-year-old frozen mummy, to today’s Maori.

What is the earliest evidence of tattoos?

In terms of tattoos on actual bodies, the earliest known examples were for a long time Egyptian and were present on several female mummies dated to c. 2000 B.C. But following the more recent discovery of the Iceman from the area of the Italian-Austrian border in 1991 and his tattoo patterns, this date has been pushed back a further thousand years when he was carbon-dated at around 5,200 years old.

Can you describe the tattoos on the Iceman and their significance?

Following discussions with my colleague Professor Don Brothwell of the University of York, one of the specialists who examined him, the distribution of the tattooed dots and small crosses on his lower spine and right knee and ankle joints correspond to areas of strain-induced degeneration, with the suggestion that they may have been applied to alleviate joint pain and were therefore essentially therapeutic. This would also explain their somewhat 'random' distribution in areas of the body which would not have been that easy to display had they been applied as a form of status marker.

What is the evidence that ancient Egyptians had tattoos?

There's certainly evidence that women had tattoos on their bodies and limbs from figurines c. 4000-3500 B.C. to occasional female figures represented in tomb scenes c. 1200 B.C. and in figurine form c. 1300 B.C., all with tattoos on their thighs. Also small bronze implements identified as tattooing tools were discovered at the town site of Gurob in northern Egypt and dated to c. 1450 B.C. And then, of course, there are the mummies with tattoos, from the three women already mentioned and dated to c. 2000 B.C. to several later examples of female mummies with these forms of permanent marks found in Greco-Roman burials at Akhmim.

What function did these tattoos serve? Who got them and why?

Because this seemed to be an exclusively female practice in ancient Egypt, mummies found with tattoos were usually dismissed by the (male) excavators who seemed to assume the women were of "dubious status," described in some cases as "dancing girls." The female mummies had nevertheless been buried at Deir el-Bahari (opposite modern Luxor) in an area associated with royal and elite burials, and we know that at least one of the women described as "probably a royal concubine" was actually a high-status priestess named Amunet, as revealed by her funerary inscriptions.

And although it has long been assumed that such tattoos were the mark of prostitutes or were meant to protect the women against sexually transmitted diseases, I personally believe that the tattooing of ancient Egyptian women had a therapeutic role and functioned as a permanent form of amulet during the very difficult time of pregnancy and birth. This is supported by the pattern of distribution, largely around the abdomen, on top of the thighs and the breasts, and would also explain the specific types of designs, in particular the net-like distribution of dots applied over the abdomen. During pregnancy, this specific pattern would expand in a protective fashion in the same way bead nets were placed over wrapped mummies to protect them and "keep everything in." The placing of small figures of the household deity Bes at the tops of their thighs would again suggest the use of tattoos as a means of safeguarding the actual birth, since Bes was the protector of women in labor, and his position at the tops of the thighs a suitable location. This would ultimately explain tattoos as a purely female custom.

Who made the tattoos?

Although we have no explicit written evidence in the case of ancient Egypt, it may well be that the older women of a community would create the tattoos for the younger women, as happened in 19th-century Egypt and happens in some parts of the world today.

What instruments did they use?

It is possible that an implement best described as a sharp point set in a wooden handle, dated to c. 3000 B.C. and discovered by archaeologist W.M.F. Petrie at the site of Abydos may have been used to create tattoos. Petrie also found the aforementioned set of small bronze instruments c. 1450 B.C.—resembling wide, flattened needles—at the ancient town site of Gurob. If tied together in a bunch, they would provide repeated patterns of multiple dots.

These instruments are also remarkably similar to much later tattooing implements used in 19th-century Egypt. The English writer William Lane (1801-1876) observed, "the operation is performed with several needles (generally seven) tied together: with these the skin is pricked in a desired pattern: some smoke black (of wood or oil), mixed with milk from the breast of a woman, is then rubbed in.... It is generally performed at the age of about 5 or 6 years, and by gipsy-women.”

What did these tattoos look like?

Most examples on mummies are largely dotted patterns of lines and diamond patterns, while figurines sometimes feature more naturalistic images. The tattoos occasionally found in tomb scenes and on small female figurines which form part of cosmetic items also have small figures of the dwarf god Bes on the thigh area.

What were they made of? How many colors were used?

Usually a dark or black pigment such as soot was introduced into the pricked skin. It seems that brighter colors were largely used in other ancient cultures, such as the Inuit who are believed to have used a yellow color along with the more usual darker pigments.

What has surprised you the most about ancient Egyptian tattooing?

That it appears to have been restricted to women during the purely dynastic period, i.e. pre-332 B.C. Also the way in which some of the designs can be seen to be very well placed, once it is accepted they were used as a means of safeguarding women during pregnancy and birth.

Can you describe the tattoos used in other ancient cultures and how they differ?

Among the numerous ancient cultures who appear to have used tattooing as a permanent form of body adornment, the Nubians to the south of Egypt are known to have used tattoos. The mummified remains of women of the indigenous C-group culture found in cemeteries near Kubban c. 2000-15000 B.C. were found to have blue tattoos, which in at least one case featured the same arrangement of dots across the abdomen noted on the aforementioned female mummies from Deir el-Bahari. The ancient Egyptians also represented the male leaders of the Libyan neighbors c. 1300-1100 B.C. with clear, rather geometrical tattoo marks on their arms and legs and portrayed them in Egyptian tomb, temple and palace scenes.

The Scythian Pazyryk of the Altai Mountain region were another ancient culture which employed tattoos. In 1948, the 2,400 year old body of a Scythian male was discovered preserved in ice in Siberia, his limbs and torso covered in ornate tattoos of mythical animals. Then, in 1993, a woman with tattoos, again of mythical creatures on her shoulders, wrists and thumb and of similar date, was found in a tomb in Altai. The practice is also confirmed by the Greek writer Herodotus c. 450 B.C., who stated that amongst the Scythians and Thracians "tattoos were a mark of nobility, and not to have them was testimony of low birth.”

Accounts of the ancient Britons likewise suggest they too were tattooed as a mark of high status, and with "divers shapes of beasts" tattooed on their bodies, the Romans named one northern tribe "Picti," literally "the painted people."

Yet amongst the Greeks and Romans, the use of tattoos or "stigmata" as they were then called, seems to have been largely used as a means to mark someone as "belonging" either to a religious sect or to an owner in the case of slaves or even as a punitive measure to mark them as criminals. It is therefore quite intriguing that during Ptolemaic times when a dynasty of Macedonian Greek monarchs ruled Egypt, the pharaoh himself, Ptolemy IV (221-205 B.C.), was said to have been tattooed with ivy leaves to symbolize his devotion to Dionysus, Greek god of wine and the patron deity of the royal house at that time. The fashion was also adopted by Roman soldiers and spread across the Roman Empire until the emergence of Christianity, when tattoos were felt to "disfigure that made in God's image" and so were banned by the Emperor Constantine (A.D. 306-373).

We have also examined tattoos on mummified remains of some of the ancient pre-Columbian cultures of Peru and Chile, which often replicate the same highly ornate images of stylized animals and a wide variety of symbols found in their textile and pottery designs. One stunning female figurine of the Naszca culture has what appears to be a huge tattoo right around her lower torso, stretching across her abdomen and extending down to her genitalia and, presumably, once again alluding to the regions associated with birth. Then on the mummified remains which have survived, the tattoos were noted on torsos, limbs, hands, the fingers and thumbs, and sometimes facial tattooing was practiced.

With extensive facial and body tattooing used among Native Americans, such as the Cree, the mummified bodies of a group of six Greenland Inuit women c. A.D. 1475 also revealed evidence for facial tattooing. Infrared examination revealed that five of the women had been tattooed in a line extending over the eyebrows, along the cheeks and in some cases with a series of lines on the chin. Another tattooed female mummy, dated 1,000 years earlier, was also found on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, her tattoos of dots, lines and hearts confined to the arms and hands.

Evidence for tattooing is also found amongst some of the ancient mummies found in China's Taklamakan Desert c. 1200 B.C., although during the later Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220), it seems that only criminals were tattooed.

Japanese men began adorning their bodies with elaborate tattoos in the late A.D. 3rd century.

The elaborate tattoos of the Polynesian cultures are thought to have developed over millennia, featuring highly elaborate geometric designs, which in many cases can cover the whole body. Following James Cook's British expedition to Tahiti in 1769, the islanders' term "tatatau" or "tattau," meaning to hit or strike, gave the west our modern term "tattoo." The marks then became fashionable among Europeans, particularly so in the case of men such as sailors and coal-miners, with both professions which carried serious risks and presumably explaining the almost amulet-like use of anchors or miner's lamp tattoos on the men's forearms.

What about modern tattoos outside of the western world?

Modern Japanese tattoos are real works of art, with many modern practioners, while the highly skilled tattooists of Samoa continue to create their art as it was carried out in ancient times, prior to the invention of modern tattooing equipment. Various cultures throughout Africa also employ tattoos, including the fine dots on the faces of Berber women in Algeria, the elaborate facial tattoos of Wodabe men in Niger and the small crosses on the inner forearms which mark Egypt's Christian Copts.

What do Maori facial designs represent?

In the Maori culture of New Zealand, the head was considered the most important part of the body, with the face embellished by incredibly elaborate tattoos or ‘moko,’ which were regarded as marks of high status. Each tattoo design was unique to that individual and since it conveyed specific information about their status, rank, ancestry and abilities, it has accurately been described as a form of id card or passport, a kind of aesthetic bar code for the face. After sharp bone chisels were used to cut the designs into the skin, a soot-based pigment would be tapped into the open wounds, which then healed over to seal in the design. With the tattoos of warriors given at various stages in their lives as a kind of rite of passage, the decorations were regarded as enhancing their features and making them more attractive to the opposite sex.

Although Maori women were also tattooed on their faces, the markings tended to be concentrated around the nose and lips. Although Christian missionaries tried to stop the procedure, the women maintained that tattoos around their mouths and chins prevented the skin becoming wrinkled and kept them young; the practice was apparently continued as recently as the 1970s.

Why do you think so many cultures have marked the human body and did their practices influence one another?

In many cases, it seems to have sprung up independently as a permanent way to place protective or therapeutic symbols upon the body, then as a means of marking people out into appropriate social, political or religious groups, or simply as a form of self-expression or fashion statement.

Yet, as in so many other areas of adornment, there was of course cross-cultural influences, such as those which existed between the Egyptians and Nubians, the Thracians and Greeks and the many cultures encountered by Roman soldiers during the expansion of the Roman Empire in the final centuries B.C. and the first centuries A.D. And, certainly, Polynesian culture is thought to have influenced Maori tattoos.

By Cate Lineberry
Smithsonian.com, January 01, 2007