Ancient people, practitioners of tattoo art some said? (5)
I believe the answer is:
incas
'ancient people' is the definition.
(people of the Inca Empire)
'practitioners of tattoo art some said?' is the wordplay.
'practitioners of tattoo art' becomes 'inkers' (people inking tattoos).
'some said?' shows a homophone (sound like).
'inkers' is a homophone of 'INCAS'.
(Other definitions for incas that I've seen before include "South Americans whose empire fell to Spain" , "Ancient Peruvians" , "Old Peruvians" , "People of ancient Peru" , "Cain's people in old Peru" .)