It was late in December of 2003 and I had the urge to go get some work done. As the realization hit me that I had no money to go to the parlor, I resorted to a self done modification. As I toyed around with the idea of piercing my nipples for a second time horizontally, I had the realization that I had been itching for some type of branding for the last six months. This seemed to be the perfect idea for a rainy night in good old Southern California.
At A Glance Author jeff the piercer Contact upthepunx29@yahoo.com When Three months ago Artist Self Done Studio my bedroom Location in so. cal My next issue was to find a design to brand onto myself. I sat down at my desk and began to draw simple designs that were eye catching. It was not until about three sheets of paper later that I came up with the idea of having three spirals intertwining with each other.
The next problem I was faced with was where I would put my new twisting design. I explored the idea of putting it on my shoulder and decided that it would look crooked. My next idea was to place it in between my shoulder blades, but found it near impossible to even reach to that point just to relieve an itch. Finally, the bright idea popped into my skull that I had no work on the lower half of my body. I realized where my piece had to go, and that was on my left, outer calf.
Since I don't own a cattery iron, I had to use a pair of surgical pliers that had a curved tip. I picked these up at a medical supply store the month before when I was buying rubbing alcohol, latex gloves, and iodine. Since I don't own an autoclave or any other device of the sort, I got a pot out of the cupboard, filled it with water, and brought it to a boil. After the water came to a steady boil, I dropped the surgical pliers in and let them sit for the next hour. During this time, I embraced the opportunity to place the pattern of my new brand onto my leg.
After choosing what I wanted, drawing out the design, doing my best to sterilize my equipment, and stressing out over the placing of my new modification, I then had to draw it on my leg. First, I shaved my leg in the area that I was going to brand. Next, I scrubbed my entire leg with Dial antibacterial soap in order to maintain some degree of a sterile procedure. Next I used a sharpie permanent marker to lightly place the design onto my leg. As I found, drawing relatively smooth spirals is quite a task, and found myself having to use isopropyl alcohol to rub some portions of the design off so that I could start over and create what looked to my as the perfect spirals. Next, I went back over each spiral, darkening and thickening the guide lines that I was to follow. Now, I had everything except a flame.
I have been burned before, and the colors of each one intrigue me. Through my nineteen years, I have noted that a more severe burn will yield a more brilliant color scar, at least on my body. With this in mind, I searched for the hottest flame in my abode. I came up with a number of objects, the hottest burning one being a butane torch. I took the torch, and retrieved the surgical pliers, then retreated into my bedroom. Then I fired up my torch, and wrapped the pliers in a piece of bath towel, only leaving the tip of it exposed. Then my session began.
In order to put myself in the mood for branding myself, I put on some heavy music, and proceeded. I put on a pair of latex gloves, and rubbed iodine on my leg below my knee. Next, I lit the torch and held the tip of the pliers in the flame until they turned white hot. The idea of branding myself was firmly stuck in my head and I was not going to back out now. The first touch with the white hot pliers was invigorating to say the least. It grabbed my attention and did not let go. I have had my nipples pierced, my frenum pierced twice, my lip, my ears gauged out to 7/16 of an inch, and I have a tattoo on my inner lip and one on my back that goes across my shoulders and down my spine. Each one of these modifications was unique in its pain level, healing time, and time it takes to complete the procedure. Out of all of these, none compare to getting branded.
Branding myself took my breath away. The heat on the pliers only lasted for about ten seconds before it had to be re-heated. This allowed me to brand approximately one centimeter of the design at a time. As one could imagine, a design that takes up half of ones lower leg is of a large size, and moving at one centimeter at a time, takes a long time to go over.
Moving on, each time I re-heated the pliers and went back to branding, I felt the same adrenaline rush as the first touch. This aspect of branding was very interesting to me because in all the other experiences, especially with tattooing, once the "bee sting" effect wears off, you don't even notice it anymore. However, this was not the case with branding as previously stated and continued to bring excitement to me.
It took me about an hour to go over all of the design. Once I finished the first part of my branding, I scraped the skin that had been fried off my leg. After I finished scraping off all the skin that was loose, I took a break for a half hour to let circulation back into my leg, and then went back for a second session. I went over the same design again, trying to create the deepest burn that could. This time, branding only took about forty-five minutes because I already had the design in my skin.
When I finished the branding, I used silvadine, a hospital antibiotic, to cover the brand. I followed this by placing sterile gauze pads over the area that was branded, and taped it to my leg to let it begin the healing process.
The experience was very pleasurable to me; however, the healing process was not. It took me approximately three months to heal from this brand, and it was a painful process. After the brand first scabbed, I pulled the bandage off, and peeled the scab all off, in order to try to create more of a scar. After I pulled the scab off, I rubbed in more silvadine and covered it once more with sterile gauze. After another day, I removed the gauze and let it sit in the fresh air. By this time, my brand had developed a small infection. This infection turned out to be my nemesis for the next few weeks. I could not walk without a limp, I could not stand in one place for more than thirty seconds, and was even woken up in the night numerous times because my leg was swollen and throbbing.
To care for this, I scrubbed the area with dial every morning and night, and kept it moist with silvadine antibiotic. After about five weeks, the entire infection had been healed and my real healing process was able to begin. After the infection was fought off, it took about one month to heal fully.
Now my brand possesses a brilliant deep purple color when it is exposed to any temperature below sixty degrees. The only issue that I have with my brand is that it itches like crazy every now and then. Other than that, my brand has given my no problem. I love it the same as all my other modifications and will end up with a branding sleeve on that leg. If anyone has any questions please feel free to e mail me and I will help out as much as I can. My e mail address is Upthepunx29@yahoo.com