The Franklin Files

Body Art By Burning

Branding was most often used historically to mark property, most often livestock but also sometimes human.  It was also utilized as a method of marking or punishing criminals both in Europe and Asia, and as recently as the founding US Pilgrim fathers.

In modern day body art, the technique is being explored as a way of making a monochromatic, permanent skin design which is more organic in line and color than what is created by tattooing.

Types of Branding 

• Direct Fire Branding - this method involves putting something in direct contact with the skin and lighting it on fire so that it leaves burns.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10006.asp

Striking the Brand

With the artist and subject in position, the brander usually takes a few moments to line up each strike before heating the iron. The sectional branding irons are easily held with pliers. Once the exact placement is found, the artist wants to not move their hands and wrists at all, just raising their forearms at the elbow away from the subject. The assistant will bring the lit blowtorch to the branding iron, holding the flame to the clamped metal piece. The iron takes about 20 seconds to heat to red-hot. It is this super-heating that will make the branding less painful, killing the skin nerves on contact. (That ultra-painful burn you got on your finger from the stove was more like a 200 degree burn; this is a 500 degree burn).

Once heated the artist calls ready and the assistant moves out of the way. Within two seconds the brander should cleanly, and with slight pressure, strike the mark. The burn should go through the epidermis, through the dermis, and just hit the subcutaneous layer. If there are any hesitations, the iron should be cooled in water, the brander should reposition and then reheat the iron before trying again. The process is repeated for as many strikes as is necessary for the design.

The lines will spread and join as they heal, hence there need to be tiny spaces between strikes. If you strike the lines right to each other, you get extra bumpy bits where two bits of scar tissue forms. The more perpendicular to the skin the brander can position the irons, the better chance they have of making uniform burns.