Penetrations Tattoo and Body Design is a rather new shop in my city and they opened right next door to my coffee shop. Since their opening, the artists and I have become good friends as we direct business to either place. I checked out the shop right away and was surprised at the quality of the cleanliness and was even more surprised to find out that were very close to becoming APP certified, as no one else in Wisconsin has been. I believe that since then the shop, owner, and piercer have been inspected and certified. Even though they we're certified when I went in, they were by far the cleanest in my city and probably in the state as it is not unusual to walk into a piercing shop here and see the artist smoking and eating in the same room where they work. I knew as soon as I saw the place that I had a new regular studio.
At A Glance Author isukatpunk Contact isukatpunk@bme.anon IAM isukatpunk When Three months ago Artist Chris X Studio Penetrations Location Eau Claire, WI While I usually ponder over my mods for at least a month, this one came unexpectedly. My piercer/brander is also a good friend of mine so when he told me he got his new cauterizing pens, I was the first to know. So we started planning on what I wanted. I told him the meaning of my current tattoo/branding, which says "Ignesco" and means "made from fire" so we agreed that flames would be appropriate. I decided that it would suit me to have the flames across my shoulders and later fill in highlights with tattoos. I haven't decided on exactly what I want for the highlights, or which artist I'm going to have perform them, but I'm leaning towards making them look more like real flames by adding darker colors (purple and blue) near the top of my tattoo, and then highlighting up with reds, yellow, and oranges to the top of the flames. While I love tattoos, I want the flames to be the focal point of my back so they need to be subtle enough to not take away from the branding, but al so bright enough to be seen.
Once we looked at a photograph and drew an outline, Chris freehanded an outline on my left shoulder. Then he copied it onto a transfer sheet and made the right shoulder exactly the same. Then we made a small design for the middle of my back. Once the outlines were on me, it was time to start burning.
The actual branding process invokes all the senses. You see smoke rising above you, you smell the burning flesh and hair, you hear the crackling and pops of the glands and hair, the smoke is so strong that you taste the burning on your tongue, and of course you feel the burning. It's a sharp pain at first, and then it hurt much less as he went over and expanded the burns. I could feel every hair follicle when he touched it, and it was amazing. I'm not one to use meditation when getting mods as I usually embrace the pain and enjoy it as much as possible, but this time it was as if I slipped into sub consciousness. I was still awake and still aware, but I was in a state of subdued reality that I never experienced before.
The whole process lasted about an hour, including preparation, burning, and clean up. Chris, being the ass that he is, likes to tell me he is cleaning me with soap and the rub alcohol deep into my wounds. I'm sure he doesn't do this with regular customers, but he likes to torture me.
After care with branding is much different that with tattoos and piercings. The main goal of the later is to heal while the former is to agitate. So I agitate as much as I could handle. I picked the scabs twice a day rubbing with alcohol the first time and baking soda the second. When the scabs got thick, I would have to bathe or shower to soften them up, then I would lay on gauze in order to get the fabric in the scabs. After that dried, it would be a lot easier to rip open the wound. Otherwise I bought a really coarse brush and scrubbed the scabs with Provone, a medical soap. After three weeks, the scars started to develop and by the 5th, the scabs were totally gone. For another month or so, I would be able to pick off the layers of this skin that formed, and now I have nice scars to show for it.
For now I'm content with the branding, but I feel I might want to scalpel the scars and burn the butterfly would to get even thicker and more uniform scars. Other brands I'm thinking about include pubic flames and bands on my arms.