tattoo are n’t everyone ’s matter , partly because of the somewhatpainful processof actually getting them done . dispense with a thought then for the long - extend residents of the Solomon Islands , who 3,000 years ago probably used volcanic glass ( obsidian ) to cut their own hide and infuse it with oxford grey and ochre , a lifelike yellowish pigment .
As reported in theJournal of Archaeological Science : Reports , the South Pacific island has a tenacious history of tattooing , but speedy post - mortem skin degeneration think of that physical evidence for tattooing techniques are almost always lost to the ravages of clock time . Even the tools that are often call up to have been used to generate tattoos , like fish osseous tissue , are biodegradable . Ultimately , this profound lack of evidence has extend to a lot of baseless speculation on the subject .
to circumvent this trouble , a team of research worker from the Universities of Sydney and Auckland tried to replicate ancient human tattoos using squealer hide , which in terms of its grain and construction is very like to human skin . Looking for the most potential tattooing gimmick , their search of the island revealed only one realistic contender .
Obsidian artifacts were once found at a site on the islands name Nanggu . Dating back to 3,000 years from the present tense , these sharp shard of rude spyglass would have been ideal for perforate the skin . Although anterior bailiwick suggested that these tool were used to tan animal hides , the deficiency of any sizable creature on the territory makes this guess somewhat improbable .
This black volcanic Methedrine , which shape when particularly viscous and silica - fertile lava chop-chop cools with low crystal outgrowth rate , is promptly usable all across thesmall archipelago . This , immix with no other obvious use for it – asunder from , perhaps , warfare – powerfully suggests it could have been used to produce tattoo .
After fashioning obsidian shards from across the island into the same chassis as these ancient tools , the researchers then used them to make tattoo on pig skin . compare the microscopic detail of these fresh creations to those known from those base on the tegument of well - keep mummies , they concluded that obsidian was a near - double-dyed tool for tattoo .
The similarity between the fresh made tools and the ancient counterparts were also fantastically like on a microscopic level , so unless a better choice is found , it looks like whatGame of Thronesfans call Dragonglass was used to make people bleed for medicinal , societal , or ritualized practices . Ouch .
Image in textual matter : Some of the obsidian tools used for tattooing . Kononenko et al./Journal of Archeological Science
