Maya Tattoo Tools Discovered for the First Time

Archaeologists from universities in the United States and Denmark found, deep within the Actun Uayazba Kab cave in Belize, two small stone tools dated between 250 and 900 AD that could be the first Maya tattoo instruments ever discovered.

The pieces are made of obsidian and have an elongated shape with a sharp tip. Researchers believe they were used to create permanent tattoos by piercing the skin and introducing pigments with them.

Interestingly, these tools are not regular knives but stone fragments specifically modified for this purpose. Under microscopic analysis, researchers found wear marks consistent with repeated use on skin, as well as traces of a black pigment, possibly carbon-based ink or soot.

mayan tattoo tools — Maya tattooing tools discovered in Belize. Credit: W.J. Stemp / C. Helmke

Since caves are underground spaces closely associated with important Maya ideological landscapes, particularly the concepts of life and death, fertility, rain, sacrifice, and gateways to the underworld where ancestors and deities reside, the archaeologists state, it seems likely that the tools were used to tattoo important individuals or to mark auspicious events.

From historical sources, we know that the Maya practiced tattooing, but until now no tools had been found to confirm it. The Spanish documented that tattoos were symbols of bravery for men and beauty for women, and that they featured animal figures such as snakes or eagles, sometimes also incorporating sacred glyphs. On some occasions, they were also used as punishment, to mark the faces of thieves.

Due to the region’s humid climate, no remains of tattooed skin have ever been found in the archaeological record, but these tools now provide tangible evidence of the practice. The researchers conducted experiments with modern replicas, which confirmed that similar tools can create tattoos by precisely puncturing the skin. Moreover, their shape and wear patterns rule out other uses such as carving bone or wood.

Based on the shape of the tool, use-wear analysis, and surviving residues, we suggest that the two retouched burins from Actun Uayazba Kab were likely puncture tools used by the ancient Maya to create tattoos, they conclude.

They also believe that to some extent, the assumption that Classic-period tattoos were created outside caves is supported by observations of this practice among post-contact Maya. It is assumed, they continue, that for Spanish chroniclers to have witnessed tattoos, they must have been performed in places accessible to them—that is, away from caves and near dwellings.

The researchers’ hypothesis is that these tools were broken into pieces in a “ritual killing” and later deposited as offerings inside the cave.

SOURCES

W.James Stemp, Lorne Voorhis, et al., Two ancient Maya tattooing tools from Actun Uayazba Kab, Roaring Creek Valley, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 64, June 2025, 105158. doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105158