Branding

What is branding?

Branding is deliberately burning a sign or pattern into the skin, with the intention that the scar it leaves behind is permanent. Within BDSM it is usually done as a mark of ownership. It is irreversible, and what finally shows is decided by the skin itself.

The methods, and why they differ

The encyclopedia distinguishes four ways, and the difference between them is bigger than it sounds.

Strike branding is the classic one: a heated piece of metal is pressed against the skin. According to the same source it is less suitable than the other forms, because it is not precise and the design tends to spread badly during healing.

Cautery branding is rarer and uses a thermal cautery instrument with a heated wire tip to make the burns.

Electrosurgical branding is often marketed as laser, but works differently: current is used to cut and sear the skin shut, similar to how an arc welder works. This method is more precise, and both the pain and the healing time are much smaller with it.

Freeze branding does the opposite: instead of heat, extreme cold is used, for instance liquid nitrogen. This produces no keloid, and the hair at the spot grows back white.

What the literature shows about scars

Here is the core of this page, and it is not a side note. With branding, the scar is the goal, but the shape of that scar is not a choice.

Chipp and colleagues followed, in Burns & Trauma, 383 children with burns treated without surgery, and looked at the relation between healing time and hypertrophic scar, the thick raised type. The result: the risk was multiplied by 1.138 for every extra day the wound needed to heal. In figures per group: with healing inside eight days 0%, at eight to fourteen 6.4%, at fifteen to twenty-one 13.5%, and at more than twenty-one 56.0%. Across the whole group, hypertrophic scarring occurred in 17.2%.

This study is about children and about accidents, not about adults who choose it themselves. That is a real limitation and I do not want to gloss over it. But the mechanism is the same: the longer a burn stays open, the greater the chance of a thick scar.

Add to that the unpredictability the encyclopedia on scarification names. Healing takes roughly six to twelve months, scars spread during that process so the end result comes out simpler than the design, and a method that works on one person need do nothing on another. Infection is also common if the tools are not sterilized, and transmission of HIV and hepatitis C through shared tools has been described.

Why people do it

The appeal is exactly in what makes it risky: it cannot be undone. A bruise fades, a brand stays.

In a BDSM context it is usually about a mark of ownership. The encyclopedia names it directly: in some consensual BDSM relationships a dominant puts their name or symbol on a submissive. Alongside that, it simply exists as a form of permanent body art, apart from any power dynamic.

• For the person receiving, the gain is in the finality. A mark that does not go away says something a word does not.
• For the person giving, it is in the weight of the responsibility. This is not something you later say got a little out of hand.
• For a couple, it is almost always a decision with a run-up of months, not something from one evening.

Relationships end and scars do not. That is not moralizing, that is arithmetic.

Misconceptions about branding

“Laser branding is the tidy version.” What is sold as laser is usually electrosurgery: current that cuts and sears. More precise and faster to heal, but still a burn and still permanent.

“You agree on the design and then it’s there.” No. With strike branding the design spreads badly during healing, and scarification in general gives a simpler result than intended.

“If it closes fast, the scar won’t be bad.” That is the exact reverse of how people use it. Fast healing does give less chance of a thick scar, but with branding a fast-healing wound is not the goal: a scar is precisely what has to form.

“It’s the same as a tattoo.” A tattoo brings pigment into the skin and is hard to remove. A brand is tissue damage that heals as a scar.

What I see myself

Branding, to my mind, does not belong in a bedroom, and that is not prudishness. It is the one subject on this list where the result is only known half a year later and where no one in the room can judge whether it is going well.

In conversations people ask about it at a moment when the feeling is at its peak. That is understandable and it is exactly the wrong moment. My answer then is: write it down, put a date on it, and look at it again in three months. Anyone who still wants it then goes to someone who does this as a craft, not to a partner with good intentions.

Almost everyone who asks about this is really looking for the feeling of something irreversible. That feeling can be reached in other ways too, and those ways do not carry over into the next relationship.

What you can do yourself

• Take months over it. A decision that is still the same after three months is a different decision than a decision from one evening.
• Have it done by someone who does this as a craft, with sterile tools. Infection, according to the literature, is common with non-sterilized material, and transmission of HIV and hepatitis C has been described.
• Count on months of healing, not weeks. Six to twelve months is the order of magnitude for this kind of body modification.
• Expect a simpler result than the design. Fine detail does not survive the healing.
• Go to a doctor for a wound that does not close, for increasing redness, pus, or fever. A burn that stays open long has a demonstrably greater chance of a thick scar.

More reading about branding

On this site, hot wax touches the one heat form that is reversible, and safety in the BDSM context is about the trade-offs you make with irreversible things.

Outside this site, the article by Chipp and colleagues is free to read and the clearest illustration of how healing time and scarring hang together.

Sources

• A prospective study of time to healing and hypertrophic scarring in paediatric burns: every day counts. Chipp, Charles, Thomas, Whiting, Moiemen & Wilson, Burns & Trauma 5, 2017. 383 children with burns, treated non-surgically; the risk of a hypertrophic scar was multiplied by 1.138 per extra healing day, with 0% under eight days, 6.4% at eight to fourteen, 13.5% at fifteen to twenty-one, and 56.0% over twenty-one.
• Human branding. Wikipedia. Gives the definition as a mark burned into the skin of a living person with the intention that the scar makes it permanent, the four methods with their properties, and the use as a mark of ownership within consensual BDSM relationships.
• Scarification. Wikipedia. Gives the healing time of roughly six to twelve months, the spreading of scars during healing, the unpredictability between people, and the infection risks with non-sterilized tools, with described transmission of HIV and hepatitis C.

Related terms

• Bloodplay. The other corner where sterile work is not a detail but the core.
• Abrasion. Skin work on the reversible side of the same spectrum.
• Edgeplay. The category branding falls under.
• Fireplay. Fire on the skin where the burn is precisely not the point.
• Cutting. The other permanent form, with a cut instead of a burn.
• Scarification. The broader category, with the law and the itch that is still there months later.