Radiological examination of Ötzi's bones showed "age-conditioned or strain-induced degeneration" corresponding to many tattooed areas, including osteochondrosis and slight spondylosis in the lumbar spine and wear-and-tear degeneration in the knee and especially in the ankle joints. It has been speculated that these tattoos may have been part of pain relief treatments similar to acupressure or acupuncture, though Ötzi lived at least 2,000 years before their previously known earliest use in China ( 1000 BC). For example, 9 of the 19 groups of his tattoos are located next to, or directly on, acupunctural areas used today, and most of the others are on meridians and other acupunctural regions of the body and over arthritic joints. Ötzi's abdominal tattoos may have assuaged the intestinal pain of whipworm, which he is thought to have had.
Radiological examination of Ötzi's bones showed "age-conditioned or strain-induced degeneration" corresponding to many tattooed areas, including osteochondrosis and slight spondylosis in the lumbar spine and wear-and-tear degeneration in the knee and especially in the ankle joints. It has been speculated that these tattoos may have been part of pain relief treatments similar to acupressure or acupuncture, though Ötzi lived at least 2,000 years before their previously known earliest use in China ( 1000 BC). For example, 9 of the 19 groups of his tattoos are located next to, or directly on acupunctural areas used today, and most of the others are on meridians and other acupunctural regions of the body and over arthritic joints. Ötzi's abdominal tattoos may have assuaged the intestinal pain of whipworm, which he is thought to have had.