The Sacred Art of Tattooing: Reflections by Sarah Gaugler
Ancient Origins & Sacred Hands
Tattooing is far more than mere decoration—it is a ritual, a mark of spirit, identity and transformation. From Neolithic times (such as the famed preserved body of Ötzi the Iceman, c. 5,300 years old) showing geometric skin markings, scholars believe tattooing had therapeutic and sacred functions.
Across cultures, women often held the roles of tattoo-artists, ritual keepers and healers. In Okinawa the Ryukyuan women practised hajichi, marking their hands in girlhood as rites of passage and protection. Among the Ainu of northern Japan, young girls received lip-and-chin tattoos as protective and communal symbols. In tribal North India, “godna” tattoos by women reflected identity, protection and ritual belonging. The archetype of female tattoo-ritualist emerges through millennia—women as healers, artists, sacred makers of skin and soul.
The 2,500-Year-Old Ice Mummy & The Tattooed Princess
One of the most evocative relics of ancient tattooing comes from the Pazyryk culture of Siberia—a female body preserved in permafrost, bearing spectacular animal-tattoos of stags, leopards and griffin-like beasts on her limbs. She dates to the 5th century BCE (~2,500 years ago). Scholars suggest she may have been of elite rank (perhaps a “princess” or high-priestess) given the artistry of her tattoos and her elaborate burial.
Imagining a wise female healer-artist tattooing this ancient woman with those animal symbols, we see how sacred tattooing functioned as conduit of power, spirit-animal alliance, social prestige. Even in classical texts (eg. Herodotus) tattooing among Scythians and Pazyryk is described as a “mark of nobility – to lack them was low birth.”
Hence the notion that tattooing was a sacred ritual carried out on healers, princesses, or people of high rank is rooted in history and mythic memory.
Rain, Remembrance & Blessed Water
In spiritual traditions worldwide, rain arriving on a wedding day or ritual moment is viewed as a divine blessing—of purification, fertility, memory and presence. Consider the image of water that remembers: whilst it floated as cloud it felt the sky’s love and now descends to join earth’s celebration. Water becomes living, receptive, remembering.
In indigenous cosmologies, water carries the prayers of ancestors, the longings of spirit, and the promises of union. A tattoo-ritual under the falling rain is thus doubly sacred: skin receives the mark; earth receives the rain; memory flows unhindered. The tattoo-artist, the couple, the land, the sky are all aligned within water’s blessing.
My Voice, My Witness
At Snow Tattoo NYC, sacred tattoos are more than art—they are living prayers on skin. As a female tattoo artist in New York who honors the ancient traditions of tattooing, I believe every mark carries energy, purpose, and divine alignment.
Last weekend, I had the profound honor of creating a sacred wedding tattoo ceremony that beautifully united love, art, and spirit. The event took place on holy land, on a private hilltop overlooking lakes, hills, and the open sky. Soft rain fell as the ceremony began, blessing the couple with renewal and divine connection before the sunset painted the horizon in gold. I found myself on sacred terrain—a private hilltop in Austin, overlooking lakes and layered hills, open horizon stretching wide. Gentle rain blessed our arrival; the sky began to clear, the sunset glowed like prayer. I felt Love itself present among us.
The following day, we continued the ritual with a fine line tattoo ceremony held in the couple’s sanctuary—high among the trees, close to the sky, perfectly aligned with the mountains and hills. Surrounded by butterflies and the scent of sacred incense, we created tattoos that embodied their eternal love.
In their sanctuary high among the trees—so close to the sky and aligned with mountains and hills in the horizon—we held our tattoo-ceremony. Surrounded by fluttering butterflies and the whisper of leaves, I held my tools and my pure heart as the ritual began.
The groom received a deer tattoo over his heart, symbolizing his bride’s spirit—graceful, intuitive, and deeply loving. The bride received a lion tattoo over her heart, representing her husband’s energy—strength, courage, and devotion.
The groom chose a deer tattoo over his heart—his bride’s spirit-animal, his devotion manifest in ink. The bride chose a lion tattoo over her heart—her husband’s energy of strength, courage and protective love. The bride (an energy- and plant-medicine woman) blessed us with copal, sage, and incense, anointing our space with ritual smoke. As I drew the designs I felt an ancient echo: the groom spoke of the 2,500-year-old “Ice Princess” of Siberia whose body bore a deer motif. In that moment a deep remembering arose in me—I sensed that in another lifetime I might have been the tattoo-artist for that ancient woman, and in this lifetime our paths are aligned: princess, healer, artist reunited for love, memory and healing.
I designed the bride’s tattoo with the groom’s fire-energy: fierce, passionate, open-hearted. I designed the groom’s tattoo as the stag of deep devotion, enduring heart-connection, loyalty. Tattooing them filled my body with an overflowing joy and sacred purpose. My whole being whispered: this is why I am here. This is why we are together.
May their spirits and souls be forever blessed by this beautiful memory: tattooed among trees, monarch butterflies in the sky, rain’s tender kiss, sunset’s glow, night’s infinite whisper. May ancient lines of memory awaken in their bodies, their union sealed not only by ceremony—but by ink, by spirit, by water, by earth.
As an intuitive tattoo artist, I felt a deep ancestral connection during the ceremony. The groom shared his inspiration from the 2,500-year-old tattooed “Ice Princess” found in Siberia, whose skin bore sacred animal symbols, including a deer. In that instant, I felt a wave of remembering—perhaps a connection through time to the women healers and priestesses who once performed tattoo rituals for queens and visionaries.
For me, tattooing is a sacred act—a ritual of transformation and remembrance. In ancient times, women tattoo artists were healers, priestesses, and keepers of spiritual knowledge. I carry this lineage in my work at Snow Tattoo NYC, where every line, every dot, and every symbol honors the sacred feminine, ancestral memory, and divine artistry.
That day, as I tattooed under the rain-kissed sky and among the trees, I felt immense gratitude. Love became art. Skin became canvas. Spirit became story.
I give thanks—to the ancestors, the art-forms, the healers, the women who tattooed, the women who held the sacred needle, the women priests, the women artists. May our lineage of sacred tattooing by women artisans live on—women healers, women artists of skin and soul.
With infinite love and affirmation,
Sarah Gaugler — Owner & Lead Artist, Snow Tattoo NYC