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,

These days, more than 30 percent of Americans sport tattoos—but there’s nothing new about our fascination with body art. As tattoos take over contemporary culture, scientists are looking to the past and uncovering the secrets of centuries-old ink.

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.

A new method of imaging tattoos has uncovered designs executed with extraordinary care on mummies from the Chancay culture in Peru. The ancient inhabitants used materials thinner than the needles used for contemporary tattooing.

An international team of researchers introduced a new technique called Introducing Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence, or LSF.

The research used laser-stimulated fluorescence technology to highlight the body art from Peru’s Chancay culture.

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