Generally speaking, traditional tattoos in tribal cultures often seemed to be created with some sort of meaningful ritual. Doing ritual tattoos is basically bringing that meaning back to the process.” Any tattoo can be meaningful, regardless of whether or not it was done as part of a ritual.

However, direct evidence for tattooing on mummified human skin extends only to the 4th millennium BC. The oldest discovery of tattooed human skin to date is found on the body of Ötzi the Iceman, dating to between 3370 and 3100 BC.