Getting Ink: The History of Tattooing

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View in Browser    DANIEL POCKETT / GETTY IMAGES Getting Ink: The History of Tattooing Tattoos have long been entwined with human culture, but across the millennia, the tools of the trade have seen some serious innovation. BY: Courtney Linder While on vacation in September 1991, Erika and Helmut Simon decided to hike the Val Senales glacier in the Alpine mountains, tucked just along the border of Italy and Austria. During their trek, at a gully about 3,200 meters above sea level, they spotted something unsettling: a human torso protruding from the ice.   At first, it wasn't abundantly clear just how long the body had been trapped there. After the Simons notified a nearby cabin owner of their discovery, he alerted the authorities. As it happened, several other bodies had been discovered after melting out from their icy graves—it had been an unseasonably warm summer, the police said. They presumed that this person, too, had been a hiker that met an unfortunate end.   Instead, days later, when a harsh storm finally subsided, archaeologists confirmed that this wasn't a hiker—this was a body that was over 5,300 years old. This was "Ötzi the Iceman," the oldest-known Neolithic man ever unearthed, and the current world record holder for the world's oldest tattoo. This is a free preview of Pop Mech Pro. Join now for less than $1 a week to read the rest of the story and more of Popular Mechanics' most in-depth, exclusive features.  JOIN NOW I'm a new Text block ready for your content. SCIENCE READ NOW How Dynamite Shaped The World HOME READ NOW How to Make a Survival Knife Out of Stuff You Already Have in Your Garage TECH READ NOW The Long, Weird History of Strobe Weapons Follow Us Unsubscribe Privacy Notice PopularMechanics.com ©2021 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019