2,000-year-old tattoo needle identified by archaeologists [Utah]

Last Sparrow Tattoo forum ^ | March 1, 2019 | PinkUnicorn

[SunkenCiv]

Once dismissed as an “odd-looking little artifact,” the tool pushes back evidence for tattooing in the U.S. Southwest by a millennium.

The tool ismade from a bundle of prickly pear cactus spines, their tips saturated with dark pigment, inserted into a handle carved from lemonade sumac and bound with yucca fiber.

Some 2,000 years ago, a tattooist in what’s now southeast Utah used this tool to hand-poke a design into someone’s skin. After the point of one of the cactus spines broke off, the tool was likely tossed into a trash heap. It remained there for centuries, in a pile of bones, corncobs, and other discarded items.

[SunkenCiv]

2,000-year-old tattoo needle identified by archaeologists [Utah]

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

2,000-year-old tattoo needle identified by archaeologists
By Krista Langlois
PUBLISHED February 28, 2019
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/02/ancient-tattoo-needle-southwest-archaeology/

[left that other site]

Ouch.

[SunkenCiv]

Nearby, they'll find the first PreColumbian bandaid. ;^)

[left that other site]

Nearby, they'll find the first PreColumbian bandaid. ;^)

It Would need To Be Extra large.

[Red Badger]

There have been tats as long as there has been skin.................

[Red Badger]

I notice that some of those people in that drawing are white while others are brown. That seems really odd for pre-Spanish Conquest....................

[Tijeras_Slim]

Probably still in use at some of the dives on Central Ave. in Albuquerque.

[left that other site]

I suppose it all depends upon who did the drawing! :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Utzi the “iceman” has a tattoo. :^)