Second-year Classics undergraduate student Astrid Khoo has published her first article in the Classical Association’s biannual publication, Omnibus, as part of the research she completed under the King’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship Scheme (KURF). 

The article, titled ‘Wounds prepared with iron: tattoos in antiquity’, was co-authored and written under the guidance of Dr Martin Dinter. 

“I felt a mixture of pride, happiness, hope, and gratitude. Moreover, the thought of making a permanent contribution to literature on tattoos in antiquity filled me with joy… I’m extremely grateful to my co-author, Dr Martin Dinter, who guided me both wisely and compassionately through the complex process of preparing a piece for publication.”

The article explores tattoos in ancient times, a topic which Astrid says she knows and loves.

“I have multiple tattoos of scenes from Classical mythology, including the abduction of Ganymede and the death of Patroclus and am highly passionate about Greek and Latin literature,” said Astrid.

She said the topic attracted her attention as tattoos had not been adequately addressed in existing scholarship and she wished to debunk certain misconceptions, especially the idea that only slaves and criminals were tattooed in antiquity.

“As I have discussed in my article, late antique Christians also tattooed themselves with religious imagery as a symbol of personal pride, and the Thracians and Scythians decorated their bodies for cultural and aesthetic reasons.”

Astrid is currently working on a few projects, for which she has been busy preparing conference papers; in April, she presented on medieval monastic underwear at the Association of Dress Historians Annual Conference and gave a paper comparing the oratorical personae of Cicero and Milton at Newcastle University. This summer, she will be speaking about illuminations in didactic manuscripts at the Leeds International Medieval Congress and present two papers on visuality and intermediality in a neo-Latin erotic dialogue known as the Satyra Sotadica.

Omnibus magazine showcases original and informative articles on ancient history, literature, art, archaeology, religion, philosophy, and the reception of the ancient world.

To read Astrid’s article, click here.