Who were the Picts? And what about those tattoos?

I am posting this because I am a direct descendant of the Picts through the Dal Riada connection and my 23 X great grandmother is Matilida who is the sister of the King of Scots .. and Dabid Mac Mail Chouloum .. John Di Balliol and Drury Lane is named after another ancestor.

Celtic Fire

I recently wrote a short story in response to a publisher’s call for submissions for “INK”–an anthology of tattoo-based stories. Of course, since most of my fiction has centered on fifth-century Ireland and other celtic locales, I thought right away about the Picts.

While reading about those mysterious people, I found out a few interesting bits that I’d like to share with my readers.

True or false? The Picts were really Caledonians, the people who later became Scoti to the Romans, and finally “Scots.” Answer:  PROBABLY FALSE.

True or false? The Picts bore blue tattoos on their bodies, virtually from head to toe. Answer: MAYBE.

I realize that I’m hedging my bets here. But almost 2,000 years after the Romans wrote about those people with picti, or pictures on their body, who’s to know for sure where they came from and what those blue marks really were?

Let me begin…

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