Branding is a form of body modification that creates a distinctive raised scar using heated tools. It has been used for thousands of years to mark individuals, animals, and criminals. The healing process can take several months, and aftercare instructions vary among practitioners.
Branding is a form of body modification that involves creating a distinctive raised scar using heated tools applied to create a pattern. There are several different styles of branding, including freeze branding, which utilizes liquid nitrogen and other cooling agents to cool the tools used for branding rather than heating them, creating a more subtle pattern on the skin. Many people consider the brand a scarification branch.
People have been scarifying each other for thousands of years, with some tribes continuing to practice scarifying as part of their cultural identity. As well as being used to mark individuals, branding and scarification have also been used to mark animals, ensuring that farmers can easily identify their herds. In some parts of the world, branding has also historically been used to mark criminals, as it creates a permanent mark that cannot be removed.
The branding process starts with creating a pattern, which is often bold and simple because complex designs don’t always heal well. Once a design is created, various tag styles can be used to apply it. The Strike brand, for example, is the brand’s classic technique, using a piece of metal molded into the desired design and heated before being applied to the skin. Some people also use electrocautery pens and similar tools for branding.
Since a mark is a burn, the mark can be painful and the healing time can be prolonged. Many marks take at least two months to heal and can go through several unsightly stages before healing is complete. It usually takes a further four months after this major healing period for the tag to stabilize, revealing a distinct scar where the tag was applied. Branding is considered a permanent method of body modification, although the same surgical techniques used in treating burn victims can be used to treat a branding.
There is debate about the best healing process for a brand, with the client receiving different aftercare instructions from different practitioners. Some people believe that the tags heal better when left in a large area, although the site must be kept clean to prevent infection. Others believe that the mark must be irritated during the healing practice, to increase the raised scars towards the end of the healing process. However, irritating the wound creates the potential for infection and can result in a patchy scar.
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