While some ancient texts and tools have survived to the present day, the medium—that is to say, skin—usually does not. They then worked to straighten out the ink line deformations caused by skin folding, while also consulting with professional tattoo artists to examine the designs in detail. From there, both the researchers and artists were able to confidently reconstruct the tattoos as they most likely appeared when first created. Interestingly, the study’s authors noted that the mummy’s right forearm tattoos were more technically proficient and detailed than those on the left. According to the team, this implies that either different Pazyryk tattoo artists did the work or it was done by at least a single artist at different stages of proficiency.