The tattoos on the Ice Maiden were not simply decorative.

Within the research framework that Polosmak and other specialists have developed for understanding Pazyryk tattooing, they represent an important body of evidence for what tattoos meant in this culture.

Based on the patterns of tattooing across the preserved Pazyryk mummies — the Ice Maiden and others found subsequently at the Ukok Plateau and elsewhere in the Altai — Polosmak has argued that tattoos in the Pazyryk culture functioned similarly to the way clan or genealogical markings function in some other cultures: as a form of identification that communicated something about the wearer’s identity or status.

The shoulder appears to have been the primary location for first tattoos, and the complexity of an individual’s tattoos may have been related to their age.