My husband was at the Milwaukee Public Museum on Monday (county residents still get in free on Mondays) and he took some photos of a very cool tattooed mummy arm for me.
The arm is from a Chimu mummy, the grave site in Huaca, Peru, dated to 1100 to 1400 AD. The MPM was there in 1968. Interestingly (to me) is that the Chimu women were tattooed as extensively as the men.
Tattoo scholar/anthropologist Lars Krutak talks about the Chimu and their tattooing on his web article MANY STITCHES FOR LIFE: THE ANTIQUITY OF THREAD AND NEEDLE TATTOOING.
The museum's signage mentions the tattoos being made by long animal bones, but Lars indicates that they were stitched tattoos, and that the women may have been the primary tattoo artists. He also mentions that up to 30% of the Chimu population may have been tattooed.
This same display also features Chimu textiles and metal work.
I will have to get to the MPM one of these days soon to see the arm in person.
Also, really cool plugs (not Chimu, but also South American):
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