Tribal tattoos are without a doubt the oldest form of tattooing, with a 5,200 year old European mummy displaying what looks like the ancestor of today's tribal tattoos. Traditional tribal tattoos from Europe to Polynesia often used a bamboo needle and a hammer to inject the ink. Today, most tribal tattoos, even of the Samoan and Maori variety are done using the more efficient and less painful tattoo machines, with only a small number of practitioners of the bamboo method remaining.