Tattoos in Ancient Egypt

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mummy tattoo

Egyptian women appear to have been fond of tattoos. Singers, dancers and prostitutes wore them and some wore cones of unguent at parties that melted and covered their bodies with scent. From the picture of the singer to Amun, we surmise that that lady has had her arm tattooed. Tattoos last forever because your immune cells are hungry for dead skin.

Cheryl Dawley of Minnesota State University, Mankato, wrote: “Tattooing was known and practiced. Mummies of dancers and concubines, from the Middle Kingdom, have geometric designs tattooed on their chests, shoulders and arms. In the New Kingdom, tattoos of the god Bes could be found on the thighs of dancers, musicians and servant girls.” [Source: Cheryl Dawley, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com]

Alastair Sooke wrote for the BBC: “A fired clay female figure, depicting an erotic dancer, excavated at Abydos in Upper Egypt and now in the exhibition at Two Temple Place, is embellished with indentations that were meant to represent tattoos. Of course, in ancient Egypt, tattoos probably had a decorative purpose. But they may have had a protective function too. There is evidence that, during the New Kingdom, dancing girls and prostitutes used to tattoo their thighs with images of the dwarf deity Bes, who warded off evil, as a precaution against venereal disease.” [Source: Alastair Sooke, BBC, February 4, 2016. Sooke is Art Critic of The Daily Telegraph |::|]

Ancient Tattoos

Aaron Deter-Wolf, a prehistoric archaeologist at the Tennessee Division of Archaeology and a leading researcher in the archaeology of tattooing, told the New York Times that there has been a lot of resistance to accepting tattooing as an art form and as a topic worthy of study. “Even when the 5,300-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman was recovered from the Italian Alps in 1991 bearing visible tattoos, some news reports at the time suggested the markings were evidence that Ötzi was “probably a criminal,” Deter-Wolf said. “It was very biased.”

Krista Langlois wrote in the New York Times: But as tattooing has become more mainstream in Western culture, Deter-Wolf and other scientists have begun to examine preserved tattoos and artifacts for insights into how past people lived and what they believed. A 2019 investigation into Ötzi’s 61 tattoos, for example, paints a picture of life in Copper Age Europe. The dots and dashes on the mummy’s skin correspond with common acupuncture points, suggesting that people had a sophisticated understanding of the human body and may have used tattooings to ease physical ailments like joint pain. In Egypt, Anne Austin, an archaeologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has found dozens of tattoos on female mummies, including hieroglyphics suggesting the tattoos were associated with goddess worship and healing. This interpretation challenges 20th-century male scholars’ theories that female tattoos were simply erotic decorations or were reserved for prostitutes. [Source: Krista Langlois, New York Times, July 6, 2021]

“The scientific study of tattooed mummies also inspires practitioners like Elle Festin, a tattooist of Filipino heritage living in California. As co-founder of Mark of the Four Waves, a global community of nearly 500 members of the Filipino diaspora united through tattooing, Festin has spent more than two decades studying Filipino tribal tattoos and using them to help those living outside the Philippines reconnect with their homeland. One of his sources is the “fire mummies” — people from the Ibaloi and Kankanaey tribes whose heavily tattooed bodies were preserved by slow-burning fire centuries ago.

“If clients are descended from a tribe that made fire mummies, Festin will use the mummies’ tattoos as a framework for designing their own tattoos. (He and other tattooists say that only people with ancestral ties to a culture should receive that culture’s tattoos.) So far, 20 people have received fire mummy tattoos. “For other clients, Festin gets more creative, adapting age-old patterns to modern lives. For a pilot, he says, “I would put a mountain below, a frigate bird on top of it and the patterns for lightning and wind around it.”

“Yet while mummies offer the most conclusive evidence of how and where past people inked their bodies, they are relatively rare in the archaeological record. More common — and thus more helpful for scientists tracking the footprint of tattooing — are artifacts like tattoo needles made of bone, shell, cactus spines or other materials. “To show that such tools were used for tattooing, rather than stitching leather or clothing, archaeologists such as Deter-Wolf replicate the tools, use them to tattoo either pig skin or their own bodies, then examine the replicas under high-powered microscopes. If the tiny wear patterns made by repeatedly piercing skin match those on the original tools, archaeologists can conclude that the original artifacts were indeed used for tattooing.

Earliest Tattoos from Ancient Egypt

Faience statuette of a woman with body decoration, sometimes identified as tattoos, 3800 – 1710 BC, Louvre

The oldest known tattooed human skin, dating to between 3370 and 3100 B.C., is on the body of Ötzi the Iceman, The next earliest evidence of tattoos comes from mummies thought to have died between 3351 and 3017 B.C. in ancient Egypt. Discovered in 1900, the bodies were found to have tattoos in 2018, when researchers re-examined them using infrared imaging and found that what looked like smudging on the skin was actually body art. The mummies, now in the possession of the British Museum, belong to a collection of six named the Gebelein mummies after the region in which they were found. [Source:Erin Blakemore, National Geographic,, June 5, 2023]

Erin Blakemore wrote in National Geographic The images, which mirror motifs found in other ancient Egyptian art, are the first evidence of tattooing in Africa. Though researchers can only speculate on what the tattoos meant to their bearers, they could have been status symbols or proof of the wearer’s skills such as bravery or knowledge of cult or ritual practices. The differences between the male and female mummies’ tattoos suggest some kind of gender or social system.

The findings about the tattoos were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. According to National Geographic Both individuals date anywhere from 3351 B.C. to 3017 B.C. The next known example of ancient Egyptians getting tattoos doesn't appear for more than a millennia later. CT scans on the man showed he was in his early 20s when he died. A cut in his shoulder and damage to one of his ribs suggests he died from a stab wound to the back. The paper further suggests that the placement of the tattoos on the woman's shoulder and abdomen mean the woman was someone who had religious knowledge or a high status. [Source Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, March 2, 2018]

Both bodies contained tattoos that were inked into the dermis, the thicker part of their skin, with an ink made of some sort of soot. Copper instruments found in nearby regions have been previously suggested as tattooing tools. The find suggests, for the first time, that both men and women in ancient Egyptian societies had tattoos. Previously, archaeologists assumed that only women living during ancient Egypt's predynastic period, from 4000 B.C. to 3100 B.C., had tattoos. This theory was based on figurines that depicted women with tattoos.

Images on the Earliest Ancient Egyptian Tattoos

The images on the tattoos described above include a wild bull and a sheep on the male’s arm, and symbols resembling the letter “S” and possibly a staff on the female’s arm and shoulder. Unlike Ötzi's tattoos, which have more geometric designs, the Egyptian tattoos are the earliest known examples of figurative tattoos, or tattoos that represent images. [Source: Erin Blakemore, National Geographic,, June 5, 2023]

Sarah Gibbens wrote in National Geographic: On the male body, scientists spotted the images of a wild bull and what appears to be a Barbary sheep. The woman's body contains four "S"-like symbols on her top shoulder joint and an "L"-shaped line on her abdomen that archaeologists think might be a stave, or wooden staff. "The sheep is quite commonly used in the predynastic [Egyptian period] and its significance is not well understood, whereas the bull is specifically to do with male virility and status," says study author and British Museum curator Daniel Antoine. "I don't think there's a good explanation at the moment," says Antoine. "It's meant to emphasize things, but I'm not sure why. It was maybe to draw attention to a crooked stave below. It's an era before writing, so we can only draw parallels." Both the images on the male and female seem to suggest a symbolic relevance, but archaeologists aren't quite of their exact meaning. [Source Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, March 2, 2018]

Erin Blakemore wrote in National Geographic Other tattoos dating from later periods suggest that tattoos were eventually used as cultic symbols in ancient Egypt. In one case, archaeologists discovered more than 30 visible and diverse images, from lotus blossoms to the Eye of Horus, on the skin of a female mummy found in the Valley of the Kings. She is thought to have lived in the Ramesside period of 1292 to 1189 B.C., and researchers believe her tattoos show that she was a priestess or magician with a particular connection to the ancient sky goddess Hathor. [Source:Erin Blakemore, National Geographic,, June 5, 2023]

Tattoos on Ancient Egyptian Women

According to Archaeology magazine: “Among cultures known to have practiced tattooing, the ancient Egyptians appear to be the only one in which tattoos may have been the sole province of women. There are several examples of actual tattooed women, including the mummy of Amunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor, which was discovered in 1891. However, ceramic figurines and vessels depicting tattooed women offer much more evidence. [Source: Archaeology magazine, November-December 2013]

In the Middle Kingdom, footless faience figurines sometimes known as “Brides of the Dead” were created with patterns of lines and diamonds, primarily on their abdomens, but sometimes on their thighs as well. One Faience Figurine dated to Middle Kingdom (ca. 2033-1710 B.C.) and a bowl dated to New Kingdom (1400-1300 B.C.) at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden show women with tattoos.

Although likely not a portrait of any individual, the figurine is of a type often found in homes, temples, and tombs, functioning as household items, offerings to the gods, or accompaniments for the dead. In addition to the tattoos, which are seen as sexually suggestive, the figurines often wear belts made of cowry shells, a symbol of femininity, and would have had copious amounts of hair — which was considered especially erotic — attached through holes in the head.

Thus, it’s likely that the tattoos were considered one element of a woman’s sexuality, and that they may have been included in the tombs to continue the deceased’s sex life. Because some figurines have been found in female tombs, it’s also possible that they functioned as images of ideal femininity, of which tattoos were an important part. In the New Kingdom a novel kind of tattoo was added to the Egyptians’ repertoire. Women, especially musicians and dancers (left bottom), were sometimes depicted with images of the dwarf god Bes on their thighs, in addition to the more traditional geometric patterns. The Egyptians worshipped Bes as a protector of women in labor, children, and the home.

“Sacred” Animal and Flower Tattoos Found on 3000-Year-Old Mummy

In April 2016, scientists announced they had found a 3000-year-old mummy from ancient Egypt heavily tattooed with animals and flower symbols, which are believed to have been sacred and have served to advertise and enhance the religious powers of the woman. Traci Watson wrote in Scientific American: “The newly reported tattoos are the first on a mummy from dynastic Egypt to show actual objects, among them lotus blossoms on the mummy’s hips, cows on her arm and baboons on her neck. Just a few other ancient Egyptian mummies sport tattoos, and those are merely patterns of dots or dashes. Especially prominent among the new tattoos are so-called wadjet eyes: possible symbols of protection against evil that adorn the mummy’s neck, shoulders and back. “Any angle that you look at this woman, you see a pair of divine eyes looking back at you,” says bioarchaeologist Anne Austin of Stanford University in California, who presented the findings at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. [Source: Traci Watson, Scientific American, May 5, 2016 /*/]

“Austin noticed the tattoos while examining mummies for the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, which conducts research at Deir el-Medina, a village once home to the ancient artisans who worked on tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Looking at a headless, armless torso dating from 1300 to 1070 B.C., Austin noticed markings on the neck. At first, she thought that they had been painted on, but she soon realized that they were tattoos. /*/

“Austin knew of tattoos discovered on other mummies using infrared imaging, which peers more deeply into the skin than visible-light imaging. With help from infrared lighting and an infrared sensor, Austin determined that the Deir el-Medina mummy boasts more than 30 tattoos, including some on skin so darkened by the resins used in mummification that they were invisible to the eye. Austin and Cédric Gobeil, director of the French mission at Deir el-Medina, digitally stretched the images to counter distortion from the mummy’s shrunken skin. /*/

“The tattoos identified so far carry powerful religious significance. Many, such as the cows, are associated with the goddess Hathor, one of the most prominent deities in ancient Egypt. The symbols on the throat and arms may have been intended to give the woman a jolt of magical power as she sang or played music during rituals for Hathor. The tattoos may also be a public expression of the woman’s piety, says Emily Teeter, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in Illinois. “We didn’t know about this sort of expression before,” Teeter says, adding that she and other Egyptologists were “dumbfounded” when they heard of the finding. /*/

“Some tattoos are more faded than others, so perhaps some were made at different times. This could suggest that the woman’s religious status grew with age, Austin says. She has already found three more tattooed mummies at Deir el-Medina, and hopes that modern techniques will uncover more elsewhere. Even infrared imaging can’t penetrate an intact mummy’s linen binding. But a nineteenth-century penchant for unwrapping mummies could enable the discovery of more tattoos, says Marie Vandenbeusch, a curator at the British Museum in London. Such examples could provide needed evidence “to really pinpoint the use of those tattoos”, she says. /*/

“Austin argues that the scale of the designs, many of them in places out of the woman’s reach, implies that they were more than simple adornment. The application of the tattoos “would’ve been very time consuming, and in some areas of the body, extremely painful”, Austin says. That the woman subjected herself to the needle so often shows “not only her belief in their importance, but others around her as well”.” /*/

Protective Childbirth Tattoos Found on Ancient Egyptian Mummies

Some ancient Egyptian mothers got tattoos that were likely meant to protect them during childbirth and during the postpartum period, an analysis of their mummies reveals. Kristina Killgrove wrote in Live Science; At the New Kingdom site of Deir el-Medina (1550 B.C. to 1070 B.C.), researchers Anne Austin and Marie-Lys Arnette have discovered that tattoos on ancient flesh and tattooed figurines from the site are likely connected with the ancient Egyptian god Bes, who protected women and children, particularly during childbirth. They published their findings in October 2022 in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. [Source: Kristina Killgrove, Live Science November 14, 2022

The discovery of at least six tattooed women at Deir el-Medina was surprising. "It can be rare and difficult to find evidence for tattoos because you need to find preserved and exposed skin," study lead author Anne Austin, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, told Live Science. "Since we would never unwrap mummified people, our only chances of finding tattoos are when looters have left skin exposed and it is still present for us to see millennia after a person died. "

The new evidence that Austin discovered came from two tombs that she and her team examined in 2019. Human remains from one tomb included a left hip bone of a middle-aged woman. On the preserved skin, patterns of dark black coloration were visible, creating an image that, if symmetrical, would have run along the woman's lower back. Just to the left of the horizontal lines of the tattoo is a depiction of Bes and a bowl, imagery related to ritual purification during the weeks after childbirth.

The second tattoo comes from a middle-aged woman discovered in a nearby tomb. In this case, infrared photography revealed a tattoo that is difficult to see with the naked eye. A reconstruction drawing of this tattoo reveals a wedjat, or Eye of Horus, and a possible image of Bes wearing a feathered crown; both images suggest that this tattoo was related to protection and healing. And the zigzag line pattern may represent a marsh, which ancient medical texts associated with cooling waters used to relieve pain from menstruation or childbirth, according to Austin.

In addition, three clay figurines depicting women's bodies that were found at Deir el-Medina decades ago were reexamined by study co-author Marie-Lys Arnette, an Egyptologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who suggested that they too show tattoos on the lower back and upper thighs that include depictions of Bes.

The researchers concluded in their paper that "when placed in context with New Kingdom artifacts and texts, these tattoos and representations of tattoos would have visually connected with imagery referencing women as sexual partners, pregnant, midwives, and mothers participating in the post-partum rituals used for protection of the mother and child. "

Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton University in the U. K. who was not involved in the current study, told Live Science that "the newly described tattoos are extremely intricate relative to earlier Egyptian tattoo practices," and that "images of pregnant women are extremely rare in Egyptian art. " Because childbirth and fertility of the soil were linked in Egyptian thought, Zakrzewski suggested that "these tattoos are imprinting protective representations — including of gods — on their body, almost like the person has their own portable magical amulet with them. "

Tattooing in Deir el-Medina is even more common than people realized, according to Austin, though it is unknown how widespread it may have been elsewhere in Egypt during that period. "I'm hopeful more scholars will find evidence of tattooing so that we can see if what is happening in this village is unique or part of a broader tradition in ancient Egypt that we simply haven't discovered yet," she said.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum, The Egyptian Museum in Cairo and Livescience (the mummy tattoo)

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated August 2024