The Fabulous Forager

Several months ago, the celebrity gossip blogosphere lit up over a mysterious new tattoo that Brad Pitt began sporting on his forearm. Originally, it was thought to be an outline of Lara Croft–Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider character–but a commenter at one blog noticed that it was actually an outline of Ötzi the iceman, Europe’s oldest natural mummy. Quite frankly, I don’t totally see the resemblance (apparently, the outstretched arm was mistaken for Croft’s braid), and to get a tattoo of a mummy because it reminds you of your girlfriend is… uh… kinda creepy. Not that that’s necessarily why he got the tattoo; no one really knows. Even his publicist admits she has “no idea.” Archaeology Magazine has already taken the liberty of coining the uni-name “Brötzi.”

The Iceman himself sports the world’s oldest tattoos–a series of blue-black has marks and a “cross”–which may have inspired the actor to choose this unusual image.

This can only end one way: Brad Pitt will light a spark in the public imagination for archaeology. First, other Hollywood A-listers will get inked with outlines of the Spirit Cave mummy and Cheddar Man; soon, desperate TV actors will be making appearances at archaeological digs. Mummy tats will become the new Kabbalah bracelet, just you watch.