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Branding using Branding tools to burn scars into the body.

Body Modification by the use of a heated metal implement to Brand a person’s skin, leaving a permanent mark in the form of a scar.
Human Branding tools are very specialized - not the Hollywood cattle Brand type tool.

Outcomes in Branding are often hard to predict, as the scar can spread and blur differently depending on each individual's skin.

Human Branding (or, Stigmatizing) is the process in which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar makes it permanent.
This is performed using a hot (or, very cold) Branding iron. Therefore, it uses the physical techniques of livestock Branding on a human - either with Consent as a form of Body Modification; or, under coercion, (i.e., as a Punishment or imposing Masterly Rights over an enslaved or otherwise oppressed person).
Occasionally done as a way for a Dominant to “mark” his (or, her) submissive.

Also, it may be practiced as a "Rite Of Passage", such as within a tribe; or, to signify Membership in an organization, such as a college Fraternity or Sorority.

Body Modification (or, Body Alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human body for any non-medical reason, such as aesthetics, sexual enhancement, a Rite Of Passage, religious reasons, to display Group Membership (or, affiliation); to create body art, shock value, or self-expression.

In its most broad definition - it includes plastic surgery, socially acceptable decoration (e.g., common ear piercing in many societies), and religious Rites Of Passage (e.g., circumcision in a number of cultures), as well as the modern primitive movement.

* Explicit Ornaments ~

* Body Piercing - Permanent placement of jewelry through an artificial fistula; sometimes further modified by stretching.

* Ear Piercing - The most common type of body modification.

* Pearling - Also known as, Genital Beading.

* Neck Ring - Multiple Neck Rings or Spiral are worn to stretch the neck (in reality lowering of the shoulders).

* Scrotal Implants.

* Tattooing - Injection of a pigment under the skin.

* Eyeball Tattooing - Injection of a pigment into the cornea.

* Extraocular Implant (eyeball jewelry) - The implantation of jewelry in the outer layer of the eye.

* Surface Piercing - A piercing where the entrance and exit holes are pierced through the same flat area of skin.

* Microdermal Implants.

* Transdermal Implant - implantation of an object below the dermis, but which exits the skin at one or more points.

* Marking The Rightless ~

The origin may be the ancient treatment of a slave (often legally not a person) as livestock.

~ European, American and other Colonial slavers Branded millions of slaves during the period of trans-Atlantic enslavement. Sometimes there were several Brandings (e.g., for the Portuguese crown and the consecutive private owner, an extra cross after Baptisement) as well as by African slave catchers.

To a slave owner it would be logical to mark such property just like cattle, more so since humans are more able to escape.

~ Ancient Romans marked runaway slaves with the letters FUG (for fugitivus).
~ An intermediate case between formal slavery and criminal law is when a convict is branded and legally reduced, with or without time limit, to a slave-like status, such as on the galleys (in France, Branded GAL or TF travaux forcés "forced labor" until 1832), in a penal colony, or auctioned to a private owner.

* As Punishment ~

In criminal law, Branding with a hot iron was a mode of Punishment by which marking the subject as if goods or animals, sometimes concurrently with their reduction of status in like.

Brand marks have also been used as a Punishment for convicted criminals, combining physical Punishment, as burns are very painful, with public Humiliation (greatest if marked on a normally visible part of the body) which is here the more important intention, and with the imposition of an indelible criminal record.
Robbers, like runaway slaves, were marked by the Romans with the letter F (fur); and the toilers in the mines, and convicts condemned to figure in Gladiatorial shows, were Branded on the forehead for identification.
Under Constantine I, the face was not permitted to be so disfigured, the Branding being on the arm, calf or hand.

The Acts of Sharbil record it applied between the eyes and on the cheeks in Parthian Edessa at the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan on a judge's order to a Christian for refusal to Sacrifice, amongst other Tortures.

In the 16th century, German Anabaptists were Branded with a cross on their foreheads for refusing to recant their faith and join the Roman Catholic church.

In the North-American Puritan settlements of the 17th century, men and women sentenced for having committed acts of adultery were Branded with an "A" letter on their chest (for men) or breast (for women).

The mark in later times was also often chosen as a code for the crime (e.g., in Canadian military prisons - "D" for Desertion, "BC" for Bad Character), most Branded men were shipped off to a penal colony. Branding was used for a time by the Union Army during the American Civil War. Surgeon and Oxford English Dictionary contributor, William Chester Minor, was required to Brand deserters at around the time of the Battle of the Wilderness.

The canon law Sanctioned the Punishment, and in France, in royal times, various offences carried the additional infamy of being Branded with a fleur de lys, also galley-slaves could be branded GAL or once the galleys were replaced by the "bagne"s on land TF (travaux forcés, 'forced' labor, i.e. hard labour) or TFP (travaux forcés à perpetuité, forced labor for life) until 1832.
However, in Germany, Branding was illegal.

Branding tended to be abolished like other judicial mutilations (with notable exceptions, such as amputation under Sharia law), sooner and more widely than Flogging, Caning and similar Corporal Punishments, which normally aim "only" to pain and at worst cause stripe scars, although the most severe lashings (not uncommon in penal colonies) in terms of dosage and instrument (such as the proverbial Knout) can even turn out to be lethal.

Generally voluntary, though often under severe social pressure, Branding may be used as a painful form of Initiation, serving both as endurance and motivation test (Rite Of Passage) and a permanent Membership Mark, seen as male bonding in violent "macho" circles.

Branding Is Thus Practiced:

* By some street gangs.

* In organized crime as "stripes" to signify a violent crime that the person committed. Typically on the upper arm or upper torso.

* In prisons.

* Sometimes as an extreme initiation in the increasingly less common tradition of painful hazing (otherwise mostly paddling).

* Some members of college Fraternities and Sororities voluntarily elect to be Branded with their Fraternity/Sorority Letters. This is far less common in Sororities than Fraternities.

* Branding can be used as a strictly voluntary body decoration and permanent body art rather like many tattoos.

* In the Sadomasochistic Scene, it is practiced as a form of bodily mutilation with Consent.

* In extreme BDSM Dominance and submission relationships, a Consensual slave may desire/accept a Branding as a mark of belonging and Commitment (possibly to slavery rather than to the specific Master).

Branding is not a precise practice; variables, such as skin type, cut depth, and how the wound is treated while healing, make the outcome unpredictable.
A method that works on one person may not work on another. The scars tend to spread as they heal, so outcome design is usually simple, the details being lost during healing.

Branding ~
Human Branding is one type of Scarification. It is similar in nature to livestock Branding.
Techniques include ....

* Strike Branding:
Similar to the process used to Brand livestock, a piece of metal is heated and pressed onto the skin for the Brand.
Historically, it was used to claim ownership of slaves or to Punish criminals, but as a form of body art, Strike Branding is less preferable to other types because it is not precise and tends to spread greatly on healing, and is not advisable for curved areas of the body.
More successful is the Multi-Strike Brand, done piece-by-piece, rather than all at once.
For example, to get a V-shaped Brand, two lines would be burned separately by a straight piece of metal, rather than by a V-shaped piece of metal.

* Cautery Branding:
This is a less common form of Branding that uses a thermal cautery tool with a heated wire tip to cause the burns.

* Laser Branding:
Laser Branding is a marketing term coined by Steve Haworth, who pioneered its use in Body Modification.
The technical term is "Electrosurgical Branding".
Though it is technically possible to use a medical laser for Scarification, this term refers not an actual laser, but rather an Electrosurgical Unit which uses electricity to cut and cauterize the skin, similar to the way an arc welder works.

Electric sparks jump from the hand-held pen of the device to the skin, vaporizing it. This is a more precise form of Scarification, because it is possible to greatly regulate the depth and nature of the damage being done to the skin.

Whereas with traditional direct Branding, heat is transferred to the tissues surrounding the Brand, burning and damaging them, Electrosurgery Branding vaporizes the skin so precisely and so quickly that little-to-no-heat or damage to the surrounding skin is caused.
This means that pain and healing time after the Scarification is complete is greatly lessened.

* Cold Branding:
This rare method of Branding is the same thing as Strike Branding, except that the metal Branding tool is subjected to extreme cold (such as liquid nitrogen) rather than extreme heat.
This method will cause the hair on the Brand to grow back white and will not cause "keloiding".
This process is also used in livestock and called Freeze Branding in that context.