How Did Humans Invent Tattoos?

Somewhere on your street right now, someone is paying a stranger to stab them with a needle thousands of times a minute. On purpose. But the oldest tattooed person we know of walked through the Alps 5,300 years ago, and his 61 tattoos weren't decoration at all. In this video we follow the tattoo from a frozen man in a glacier to the shop on your street: soot rubbed into aching joints, Egyptian women protected by nets of dots, a Siberian princess with a magical deer on her shoulder, a slave who carried a secret message tattooed on his scalp, criminals in Japan marked with the word "dog", sailors with pigs on their feet, Thomas Edison's electric pen, and an industry that now gets paid twice for the same arm. TATTOO PASSPORT: ÖTZI THE ICEMAN Age: about 45 Height: 1.60 m Lived: about 5,300 years ago Tattoos: 61 Design: short lines and small crosses Placement: lower back, knees, ankles, wrist Ink: soot from the campfire Tool: bone needle, one dot at a time Purpose: probably pain relief Status: still visible after 53 centuries in the ice AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS, 3300 BC 1. Sit by the fire. Bite something. 2. Do not wash it off in the river. 3. Do not let the wolves lick it. 4. If it still hurts, ask for more lines. 5. Enjoy it. Forever. Timestamps: 0:00 Someone Is Paying to Be Stabbed 0:28 A Body in the Ice, 1991 1:07 The Copper Axe That Changed Everything 1:38 Meet Ötzi, the Iceman 1:52 61 Tattoos and No Pictures 2:16 Every Tattoo on a Place That Hurt 2:45 An Ancient Tattoo Session 3:07 How It Was Done: Hand-Poking 3:48 Why a Tattoo Never Fades 5:00 The Mummy in the British Museum 5:42 The Women of Egypt 6:21 The Siberian Ice Maiden 6:54 Skin as a Passport 7:22 The First Tattoo Needles 7:58 Tatau: Samoa and the Māori 8:33 Stigma: When Tattoos Became Shame 9:18 The Message Under the Hair 9:43 Rome: Property, Labelled 9:57 Constantine and the Church 10:17 The Pilgrims of Jerusalem 10:32 Japan: From Punishment to Art 11:07 Banned in Japan 11:42 Whoever Holds the Needle 12:47 Captain Cook and the Word "Tattoo" 13:34 Sailor Tattoos and Their Secret Meanings 14:28 Tattoo Shops by the Docks 14:55 Edison's Pen and the First Tattoo Machine 15:37 The Tattooed Circus Stars 15:58 Royals With Secret Tattoos 16:25 Prison Tattoos: A Secret Language 17:12 When America Banned Tattoos 17:32 From Rebellion to Fashion 18:01 A Billion-Dollar Industry 18:45 What's Really in Your Ink 19:32 Paid Twice: Tattoo Removal 20:19 Why We Still Reach for the Needle What would you put on your skin forever? Tell me in the comments. If you enjoyed this video, hit like and subscribe for more stories about how humans invented the things we use every day. #Tattoo #Tattoos #AncientHumans #AncientHistory #HumanHistory #Otzi #Iceman #Archaeology #Prehistory #Egypt #Japan #HistoryFacts #HistoryExplained #Documentary