A new study sheds light on tattoo designs found on more than 100 mummies from Chancay culture, a group that lived on the Peruvian coast between roughly 900 and 1500 C.E.

Lasers are typically used to remove tattoos from the skin with mixed results. These tight beams of light can also reveal the ink that once decorated 1,200-year-old pieces of mummified skin. Using a newly developed laser technique,

With a tool often used in the study of dinosaur fossils, scientists uncovered new details in ornate tattoos on the skin of members of the Chancay culture of Peru.

Mummies’ skin glows brightly when scanned by a laser, revealing the fine details of any tattoos on the preserved body part 1.

Researchers used lasers to uncover intricate, hidden tattoos on 13th-century Peruvian mummies, revealing details of ancient body art invisible to the naked eye. View on euronews

Modern tattoo enthusiasts with access to numbing creams and electric machines might not appreciate the painstaking effort that went into body art centuries ago. But researchers have now uncovered a glimpse of this ancient artistry by revealing intricate tattoos on 1,