About two years ago, I decided I wanted some branding work done on myself. Mind you, I am a professional modification artist with over five years of experience doing hot-strike branding. Why didn't I do my own brand, you ask? Well, I don't really have the emotional detachment to reliably burn myself well with hot bits of metal (at least, not on the larger scale that I envisioned). Also, being intimately familiar with the pros and cons of hot-strike branding, I knew I wanted mine done with electrocautery, as I wanted a fairly large piece with a lot of swoops and spirals, and felt the results would be closer to my desired effect. Having heard and seen so many good things about Karl Schmidt's work at Puncture, I couldn't resist any longer and had to take advantage of the opportunity to get my brand done by him while I was recently working for him down on the Sunshine Coast. Almost everyone who's ever worked for Karl has a branding done by him, and all of the work I saw when I was down there was outstanding, so I was extremely confident in my choice of artist!
At A Glance Author Lori St.Leone Contact Lori St.Leone@bme.anon IAM spikesandstuds When A month ago Artist Karl Schmidt Studio Puncture Body piercing and Branding Location Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast, QLD Australia On my last day in the shop, we drew up my design, after measuring my left forearm around the top and the center about halfway down. The design wraps around my left forearm, so we had to be pretty careful with our measurements to make sure it would be perfect! Karl and I discussed the distance between all of the lines and the projected "spreading" of the scar after healing, and I re-drew it. After a few more false attempts, we were both happy with the design and I started carefully tracing it with a piece of carbon paper to make the stencil. An hour or so before closing time at the shop, Wayde (a friend of mine and former employee of Karl's) showed up to watch the fun and have a chat, he also acted as the photographer of the evening. We waited until closing time, and when the last customer walked out of the shop, we locked the door and headed off into the studio.
My arm was scrubbed in preparation, then the stencil was laid on it and wrapped around it – oops, that's not perfect. Take two with the stencil – nope, that's not right either! After about four tries, we got the stencil on exactly where it needed to be, and I hopped up in the chair (nerves twanging away merrily) and Karl began setting up his tools, breaking open autoclave packets containing the tip for the cautery tool, lots of single-use paper lint-free towels and gauze, and #11 scalpels. He gloved up, put on goggles and a large respiratory mask (which made him look alarmingly like a Tusken Raider, much to my geeky amusement), and we got started.
Karl had earlier told me of his scalpel-and-cauterise technique, explaining that the results scarred a lot better and stayed tighter in the long run than cautery alone, and I was content to let him do as he saw best. He cut along part of the stenciled design, blotted the blood off with a lint-free towel, and then cauterised the fresh cut quickly and surely. As he moved along further into the design, I adjusted my arm position accordingly, sometimes holding it up for him to work on the underside of my arm, and getting to relax with my arm resting on the paper-and-cling-film-wrapped arm of the dentist's chair. We did the underside of my arm first, after which I was more than ready for a cigarette, so we got up and took a short break After a few minutes outside (the cool evening breezes feeling incredible on my hot, oversensitive skin), we returned to the studio and continued our progress until the piece was complete. I wrapped it in a few non-stick Melolin bandages, and covere d the lot with cling film to protect it that night during sleeping, so I wouldn't scrape or bang it too badly – the bandages acted as a slight padding
All told, the procedure took about two and a half hours from beginning to completion, and I can honestly say that I never really minded the pain of it right up until the end, when we got near the elbow – I really didn't care for that bit of it at all! I didn't have any feelings of my endorphins kicking in as such; it was fairly painful from start to finish. I was chatting and posing for Wayde's camera with very few serious dramas, and at one point noticed something I've noticed with tattooing – if I can see what the artist is doing, it seems to hurt less, but if I can't see what they're doing, it really, really hurts!
The pain of electrocautery branding is indescribable, but I'll do my best! The cutting of the scalpel was not a lot different than getting a tattoo, a very sharp but tolerable slicing (or scratching, as the scalpel began to dull – which I pointed out to Karl and he got a new scalpel straight away!), followed by the rough gauze or toweling wiping the blood off. The cautery tool hurt incredibly for a split second as it touched the skin (as Karl moved it, steadily cauterisng the cut), then died off immediately, leaving a residual ache and tingle in the areas that had been cauterised, and a tight, throbbing feeling in the immediate outer vicinity of the burned lines. Within a few days, second-degree burns came up peripherally, all around the edges of the blackened third-degree burns that made up my design, and that's when the non-prescription narcotic-based painkillers came into play. It was all I could do to think of anything besides the pain, let alone sleep or do any piercing s at work (I was back at work immediately after the branding was done, no days off!). I resigned myself to being the counter chick at the shop for the next week or so! My arm was swollen to the point of being useless, I couldn't even open and close my hand (and when I tried, I looked like a fiddler crab), and sleeping was next to impossible, even with painkillers. I jerry-rigged a "nest" of pillows in my bed, with one beneath my upper arm and one supporting my hand, so that nothing at all touched my aching forearm. This was the only way I could get comfortable enough to get some rest. It took easily two weeks for the aching and swelling to subside to where I was comfortable sleeping in any position, and had full movement of my hand and arm again.
Aftercare-wise, I've been keeping it very simple. It's the last thing I get wet in the shower and the first thing I dry off, always with single-use paper towels. I wash it with antibacterial soap twice a day, and spray 3% hydrogen peroxide all over in the evenings when I wash it after I get home from work. The hydrogen peroxide helps keep it clean, and "eats away" at the dried lymph, acting as a mild irritant. I also took a course of broad-spectrum antibiotics as a pre-emptive measure, I live in the Tropics and skin infections are disturbingly common here, so I didn't want to chance it. I have NOT been brushing it with a toothbrush or adding any irritants such as lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, as I don't particularly want huge, misshapen keloiding – the overall healed effect I'm after is clean, slightly raised lines, and in these early days it's looking pretty good. I don't want it to spread out a whole lot, I'm rather fond of the tightness of the design as it is, and I'm hoping that it will heal up and scar well without any massive amounts of irritation.
While at work, I kept it covered with non-stick bandages and cling film, both to keep it clean and to not freak out my clients. Whenever possible at work, I took the bandages off and let it dry out. It dried up and scabbed after a few days, and the scabs would crack and ooze yellowish lymph (which was absolutely delightful to behold), so you can see why I didn't think it would be great advertising as to the cleanliness of the shop I work in to expose my oozing wound to the customers. While at home, I never wore bandages over it, just kept it clean and dry and let my body do the rest.
About 13 days into healing, the scabs started peeling off, and it stopped hurting and started itching. The scabs were totally gone by today, day 15. Now it's quite pink, shiny and smooth (as opposed to scabby and crusty), with well-defined ridges and furrows forming the pattern in my skin. This is the first glimpse I've gotten of how it's going to look when it's finished healing, and I have to say I'm completely in love with it! It's definitely still healing and has a ways to go yet, but it seems to be going well. It has been a painful few weeks, but overall, it's been worth it.