We have the result of those choices.

We do not have the reasoning behind them.

The tattoo on the shoulder is both the most visible thing we know about the Ice Maiden and one of the most opaque.

It tells us that she was tattooed, that the tattoo was in the animal style, that the creature depicted was a griffin-deer hybrid.

It does not tell us what that creature meant to her, what ceremony accompanied the tattooing, what she experienced as the pigment was placed under her skin, or what the marks on her body communicated to the people who saw them.

The blue tattoo is the first thing the archaeologist saw as the ice melted.