London, August 15 (ANI): The intricate patterns of 2,500-year-old tattoos - some from the body of a Siberian 'princess' preserved in the permafrost - has revealed how little the body art has changed in more than two millennia.
The remarkable inking includes mythological creatures and experts say the elaborate drawings were a sign of age and status for the ancient nomadic Pazyryk people, described in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus.
The body of Princess Ukok, who died aged 25, had several tattoos on her body, including a deer with a griffon's beak and a Capricorn's antlers. The tattoos have been perfectly preserved for 2,500 years.
'I think we have not moved far from Pazyryks in how the tattoos are made,' the Daily Mail quoted scientist Natalia Polosmak - who discovered the remains of ice-clad 'Princess Ukok' high in the Altai Mountains, as telling the Siberian Times.
"It is still about a craving to make yourself as beautiful as possible. For example, about the British. A lot of them go on holiday to Greece, and when I've been there I heard how Greeks were smiling and saying that a British man's age can be easily understood by the number of tattoos on his body.
"I'm talking the working class now. And I noticed it, too. The older a person, the more tattoos are on his body," she said.
Dr Polosmak further said that the left shoulder has been a favourite spot for people to get themselves inked.
"We can say that most likely there was - and is - one place on the body for everyone to start putting the tattoos on, and it was a left shoulder," she said.
"I can assume so because all the mummies we found with just one tattoo had it on their left shoulders. And nowadays this is the same place where people try to put the tattoos on, thousands of years on," she said.
"I think its linked to the body composition - as the left shoulder is the place where it is noticeable most, where it looks the most beautiful.
"Nothing changes with years, the body stays the same, and the person making a tattoo now is getting closer to his ancestors than he or she may realise.
"Tattoos were used as a mean of personal identification - like a passport now, if you like," Dr Polosmak said.
The tattoos were 'used to express some thoughts and to define one's position both in society, and in the world.
The more tattoos were on the body, the longer it meant the person lived, and the higher was his position. (ANI)
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