The world's oldest-known tattoo kit has been discovered and it includes tools made from human bones, scientists have confirmed.
Multi-pronged tattoo combs that look similar to some modern tattoo artists' tools were found in Tonga, in the Southern Pacific Ocean.
The kit dates back 2,700 years and pushes the dawn of human tattooing to the start of the Polynesian culture.
It could help answer the question of whether tattooing was imported from other cultures, or was native to Oceania.
The world's oldest-known tattooist's kit has tools (pictured) made from human bones, scientists have confirmed. The kit has been confirmed to be 2,700 years old by carbon dating. It is the first time that tattoo tools have been 'minutely' examined by a research project
The research, headed by Griffith University in Australia, was the first to 'minutely' study and date the kit using radiocarbon techniques.
All four of the tattooing tools are made from bone – two from a large seabird and two from large mammals.
Professor Geoffrey Clark, from The Australian National University (ANU) School of Culture, History & Language, who worked on the project, said: 'As there were no other mammals of that size on the island at the time, and human bone is known to be a preferred material for making tattooing combs, we believe they are most likely made from human bone.'
Dr Michelle Langley, from Griffith's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, worked with Professor Clark, added: 'The discovery of early tattooing implements is exceptionally rare.
'So, to find an entire kit is phenomenal. We very rarely find a whole kit of any type of tools in the archaeological record.
'These artefacts show that the modern tattooist toolkit - one-piece narrow combs, haft, mallet, carbon pigment, mortar, pestle, and ink-holding vessel - were in use 2700 years ago in West Polynesia.
'The kit most likely belonged to one tattoo artist. One tool was broken and it looks like it was being repaired, so perhaps the kit was accidentally left behind or was too broken to bother salvaging. Perhaps the tattooist was given a new set.
'The actual tool itself – the comb shape and the way it's used – hasn't changed much, and that's why this find is so interesting. These ancient tools continue to be used today.'
Polynesia is a an area in Oceania, which is made up of than a thousand islands found throughout the central and southern Pacific Ocean.
Fragments of the bone kit were zoomed in and analysed by scientists. Experts say the kit is thought to have belonged to one tattoo artist. One tool was broken and has signs of repair
The ink pot originally discovered with the tools in 1963, is now missing, but would have made the find the oldest complete tattooing kit to be discovered anywhere in the world.
The entire toolkit was initially feared to have been destroyed during the 2003 Canberra bush fires.
While the tattooing combs were found safe and unharmed, the ink pot has not been recovered.
All four of the tattooing tools are made from bone – two from a large seabird and two from large mammals. Experts say there were no other mammals of adequate size so the mammalian bones must have come from humans
Professor Clark said the discovery sheds further light on the long-running debate about where the Polynesian style tattooing first developed.
'These bone tattoo combs are a very specific type of technology found across Oceania.
'The question has always been were these tools introduced to the Pacific through migration, or were they developed in Polynesia where we know tattooing has a very prominent role in society and spread from there.
'This discovery pushes back the date of Polynesian tattooing right back to the beginnings of Polynesian cultures around 2,700 years ago.'
'Tattooing combs like
