It is an observation that similar therapeutic intuitions about the body — that certain points on the body correspond to systems of pain and that manipulating those points could provide relief — may have developed independently in different cultures.

Whether Ötzi’s tattoos truly represented therapeutic practice or had some other meaning — ritual, social, identity-marking — remains uncertain.

What is certain is that Ötzi was a heavily tattooed individual who had invested significant effort and pain in marking his body in ways that were apparently intentional and systematic.

He was a person who understood himself in relation to his body and who lived in a community that had developed practices for engaging with pain and illness, however those practices are ultimately to be understood.

The Medical Record Of A Copper Age Life