Erik and Colin at
Lejre Research Center
Weekend July 1st and 2nd.  2000

We had been invited to show how tattooing were done "in the old days". You have to realize that the electric tattoo machine is no more than a hundred years old (1894 showed the first patent). For all the millenniums before that, tattooing was done by hand.
Once people learned to use needles, of course they used those, but I am sure that before that, among other things, rose thorns were used. You only have to find the right kind - strong and very sharp. It is also cool that they come with a readymade handle - part of the stem.

The technique is naturally the same as with needles - you dip the thorn in some colour, and punctures the skin.

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