I hadn't really thought much about branding. Like most people, I related it to cattle as a mark of ownership, and nothing more. Things changed... And I'm glad they did.
At A Glance Author emma Contact emma@bme.anon IAM emma When A month ago A few months ago, I drew a shooting star design which I thought would look nice tattooed either side of my navel. I redesigned it a few times, and after wondering what pregnancy would do to them, I decided not to have them tattooed on my stomach. I'm not too found of my lower half anyway, so I thought instead I could put them somewhere else.
The idea was to have purple stars with a blotchy cloud type area around them, blending to make them three dimensional. The chest seemed like a nice place to show off tattoos easily, since most women's tops have low necks. I checked out many chest tattoos (most of which I come across were nautical stars or swallows), and to be honest, I wasn't very keen on how they looked.
I did one of my usual browses through BME, but it was just after the New Year update so I was like a kid in a candy store. I researched piercings I'd like, looked at a few new tattoos, and then came across the Scarification section. Realising I hadn't actually looked in there properly before, I had a little look. Immediately I saw how beautiful cut and branded scars can be. I wondered what colour my burnt and healing flesh would go, and I fell in love with the idea of branding the stars on my chest.
I read up on all I could find before going to ask my piercer about it (as always). I took a friend with me, and on the day of my 3.2mm to 4mm tongue stretch I asked about my brandings. My piercer loved the design and straight away said I could have it done.
Knowing there wasn't a problem with it, I went away and thought it through, almost day and night, for a few weeks. Flicking through pictures of other people's beautiful work and staring at my blank and longing-to-be-decorated chest I decided to go ahead with it.
For a long time the only thing I feared was not being able to continue with it once we'd started. I was scared of the thought of having a half completed design under my nose for the rest of my life. I read a lot of branding experiences that had already been sent to BME, and most of them were horror stories. The heat and pain seemed to be unbearable for most people, and I was certain I would end up one of the majority.
Within time the fears got worse, but I knew I still wanted it doing. The day before I was due in, I went to visit my piercer to tell him how nervous I was and to introduce him to a good friend I had staying with me at the time. Seeing how jittery I was, he took me into the piercing room and told me to name a place on my body I wouldn't mind having a small scar. Since most people in Britain have TB scars on there left arm (and I haven't), I chose there. To put my mind at ease I had three little dots branded on my arm. I clenched my teeth together and pushed my hands deeply into my pockets as I was sure I was going to try to lash out at someone from the pain. After the first touch I realised how little the pain was from what I expected... Within a few seconds the pain was really only heat and the slight feeling of separating skin, which was bearable and not entirely uncomfortable unlike what I had been previously warned about. In fact, only one person I know told me I shouldn' t have worried. She'd branded herself a little before and she said it wasn't as bad as I'd think. She was right.
Knowing exactly how bad it felt, I was prepared for the next day. I got up early and picked up a friend from the train station. He travelled from Leeds to give me moral support and to get two vertical labrets done. We had a relaxing afternoon watching videos and skating on TV, then the nerves kicked in again. His more than mine.
It was dark and raining when we went to catch the bus. We got into town, sat in the studio for a while and was then sent to get food before anyone did anything else, which was lucky since I hadn't eaten that day. Felt a tiny bit awkward since my friend was my ex, but nevertheless I was determined to enjoy this experience.
Joking around with my piercer and his wife lightened the mood loads. Even when my mate was having his verticals done, we were still laughing and messing around, making it a bit difficult to mark his lip properly. My friend had his fun, and after a short while to catch his breath back, he jumped off the bed and it was my turn.
My chest had to be moisturised and shaved before we started. Stencils were made and placed into the right places and music was turned on. I sat comfortably and awaited the horrible pain... When in fact it was only certain places where the cautery pen must have gone a little deeper where it hurt. Funny thing was, we could hear a girl screaming from a tattoo a few rooms away, and all I did was tense my lips and scrunch up my eyes every now and then.
The actually branding didn't take long at all, but with the whole lead up it felt like a long time. I took the pain well and I'm eager to get back onto that bed and have more done.
The first few days after the branding were normal. Day three or four was when I began to experience tightness from scabbing, and awful itching. My chest was sore for just over a week, then I gave into temptation and picked off all the scabs to reveal two pretty pink stars.
It's now a few weeks since I had them done, and all I want to do is scratch them and have more added. All I'm waiting for is my piercer to get a new cautery pen, since we blew the last one.
Any questions, feel free to get in touch.