Figures 8, 9 & 10, Schele: 1997
TattooTattooing among the Maya was clearly being practiced when the Spaniards first arrived in the New World, and it was described in detail by de Landa, and other chroniclers:
They tattooed their bodies, and the more they did this the more courageous and brave they were considered to be because tattooing was a great torment. It was done in the following way: the tattooist marked out the place that had been chosen with ink and then delicately cut in the pictures, and thus these marks remained on the body in blood and ink. The work was done little by little on account of the great pain it caused and afterwards they were ill because the work used to fester and ooze, but in spite of all this those who did not tattoo themselves were jeered at.This form of tattooing would have created an image unlike any modern tattooing practices. By cutting the skin there is going to be a scar. If the substance rubbed into the wound to give it color kept the wound open, it would have healed from the inside out, giving the impression of the design being carved into the skin. Likewise, if the substance rubbed into the cut did not keep it open, but instead irritated the healing process, the scar would most likely raise. Sanchez de Aguilar, another Spanish chronicler, reports, "In the wounds they placed a certain black earth or ground-up carbon. When they were healed, the cicatrices remained with the figures of serpents and eagles which they had made with the lancets" (Thompson, p. 19). This form of tattooing is a fine line between tattooing and scarification, and I find no specific necessity to differentiate between the two. It is only important that the reader realize what a textured finish there would be in this process.
de Landa p. 67-68
We learn further from Thompson's sources that both men and women tattooed themselves all over the body, specifically the legs, arms, torsos and face. The designs were usually described as figures, and it is reported that they often had their faces cut with the "form of the animal which they have as a charm" (Thompson p.21).
One chronicler refers to a Mayan cacique: "He had all his chin, breast, and stomach worked with iron with good paintings" (Thompson, p. 20). Thompson passes this off as another form of tattooing "naturally, there is no reason to suppose any implement of iron was used" (Thompson, p. 20). However, the same chronicler uses the term tattooing elsewhere in his writings. It is quite possible then that this process of "working with iron" may refer to a sort of branding, even though metallurgy had not advanced to include iron Mesoamerica. Branding usually creates a raised scar, but the amount of detail shown on the faces of many of the figurines could not have been created through scarification. It is a disappointment that there are no examples of tattooing on other parts of the body in the archaeological evidence with which to substantiate some of the claims made in the ethnographical record.
The images from the archaeological record which most likely refer to these practices are probably those that show raised full-facial and semi-facial designs and scrolls on the figurines, and Lady Xoc at Yaxchilan (Plates 2 & 5). These images amazed me, and as they are intricately detailed as being raised designs, my first thought was that they represent raised, keloided scars. However, these lines are very fine and detailed, whereas it is almost impossible to create scars that are raised, uniformly, with a width of less than 1/4 inch at minimum (Larratt, 1998). Given this information, it seems impossible that such intricate, uniform and highly raised symmetrical designs could be created through scarring. However, the high detail would easily have been created by the cutting/tattooing process which is described above, only the height shown on the figurines would most likely be exaggerated.
The images shown in lintels 24 and 26 at Yaxchilan struck me as tattoos (as opposed to blood scrolls) by the way that they are "textured" and detailed as opposed to being simple drops that seem to represent blood on other imagery. Schele states that these are clearly blood scrolls because in Lintel 24 Lady Xoc is shown giving blood, and that Lintel 26 would have represented the aftermath of this process. However the dates on these Lintels are not the same, and even though it represents the same ritual, there is no indication that the bloodletting scene shown on Lintel 24 would come before the scene in Lintel 26 during the ritual. It is only because the lintels have been read from left to right in their positioning on the structure that this order has been established. There is no concrete reason to believe that Lintel 24 should be read as having taken place before the other two lintels.
I would argue against Schele, and suggest that many, if not all, of these raised lines shown on images throughout the Maya world are indeed tattoos. The fact that tattooing was extensively practiced at the time of the Spanish arrival in the new world suggests that there must have been tattooing among the ancient Maya as well. Given this, it makes sense that tattooing would have been shown in the permanent artwork of the Maya. A continual difficulty with the specific case of Lady Xoc is that if this is a tattoo, and therefore permanent, why is it not shown on all of the Lady Xoc images? If it is a tattoo, it could be used as evidence to suggest that tattoos were not of importance as a status symbol, but rather served some other purpose that is not as easily explained as in the theocratic model of a definition of rank. It is unfortunate that there are no other clear, multiple images of the same person depicted with tattooing.
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