Scythians were ancient horse nomads whose tribes controlled the Eurasian steppe from southern Siberia to the Black Sea from about the 800s BCE to 100s CE. Thanks to their high-latitude homeland, some Scythian burials became accidental mummies, preserved in frozen ground until archaeologists uncovered them.
Their well-preserved bodies mean we can tell they had tattoos. Lots of them! They didn’t tattoo their faces. But pretty much anywhere else was up for inking.
Two bits of info about this:
1. The above illustration is based off of a body found among the Pazyryk mummies, the Pazyryk being a Scythian culture.
2. The below man is a Toronto professor (and obvious Scythian enthusiast) who had all of those tattoos done based off of the real tattoos found on Pazyryk bodies. He was interviewed in this British Museum article: [link]
