&gt; I think tattoos are even older than this.<p>Ötzi is the oldest tattooed body we have and thus the oldest hard evidence of that practice.<p>While there is peripheral evidence of probable earlier tattooing (Cucuteni-Trypillian sculptures, and how wide-spread confirmed tattooing practices are circa 1000~2000BCE), we don&#x27;t have anything hard before Ötzi (circa 3000BCE).<p>Incidentally, Ötzi&#x27;s tattoos seem to be therapeutic rather than artistic.