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Photos Self branding pics

Wawa

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Been slowly working on what'll eventually be a big sleeve of branded patterns on my arm for about the last year...

Pretty stoked about how its looking now. I've avoided tattoos this long because I have mixed feelings about having someone elses art on my body.... but my own drawing ability isnt up to par either.

Branding scars feel different; the roughness and experimentation doesnt detract from them. The shapes that are blurred and irregular are just part of the progression. The same spiral pattern becomes more elaborate. After burning myself enough to be really comfortable with it, I just started on the large tree shape.

So yeah here are some pictures of healed brands, fresh ones, peeling em.... next time I'm burning myself will try and get someone to take a picture :D

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Notmyname

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DUUUUUDE THATS FUCKING GNARLY!!!!! how do you go about this? have you ever gotten an infection? that shit looks gross but idk how they are supposed to heal. how bad did it hurt? im fine with tattoos but burning just seems so much more painful. also how does it smell?
 

Multifaceted

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I've been taught how to do this safely.. I don't want to go into the entire how-to of it, but thought I'd make a note of one bit..

You should not have to subject your skin to the heat source for more than a tap. That means quickly on, quickly off. For the cleanest, most defined scars you should be using a heat source hot enough to essentially kill multiple layers of skin all with just one tap.. For me, that was red-hot iron.

At first the burn will just be a blister- you'll think you didn't go deep enough. You actually did... in that one tap you put so much heat on your skin that it penetrated down enough to (essentially) kill enough layers of skin to form a scar.. The next day you should have a deep, scabby wound, despite it being a blister for several hours after the initial burn. (Should note that everyone's skin is different and may have a different reaction..)

Branding irons are shaped to be the design of the branding so that you can achieve this all-at-once, one-tap burn.. This makes for straighter lines, less obscuring, etc. in my experience.

I'm not saying you can't do it any other way. Just thought this might help someone other than the OP who's looking for information on the subject before continuing on, or even OP if OP didn't know.
 

Wawa

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Okay questions... not saying my way is the only or best, but I've burned myself a lot intentionally and unintentionally and observed carefully...

First off, deep burns hurt less. When I'm burning myself, I use a 14g sized blunt end of an awl, red-orange hot and freehand it. If I hover the thing over my flesh in a moment of indecision, it hurts a bit, but as soon as it sinks into my skin it just overloads the nerves and I don't feel it much. It smells somewhere between bacon and burnt chickenskin. I get a big adrenalin/endorphine rush that leaves me feeling pretty high for sone hours.

It doesn't start to hurt until well into the healing process, sometimes as much as five days. To make my scars more vivid, I rub clean ashes, vinegar, anything on hand that is sterile or antimicrobial and also irritates healing tissues. Once for lack of anything better, I used tabasco sauce(salt chili pepper vinegar, all do the job).

It all sounds kind of risky, but burns are pretty superficial, and I usually only burn myself when I'm in a somewhat stable place, chilling out, eating and sleeping well, being aware of my immune system.

So basically I've irritated my burns and delayed the healing as long as I'm comfortable with, but I've never had a worrysome level of irritation or infection

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Wawa

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Almost forgot! About a week in, I'll peel them. By then enough healing has happened so that it'll bleed, sometimes a lot. Feel like... well, peeling a scab :D

I don't use irritants until after I've peeled it.



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WanderLost Radical

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How old are your first scars? Are they still obvious? I got a professionally done branding 1.5 years ago, and its barely showing anymore. It was supposed to be all bumpy, but I only got 2-3 small lumps, and the rest healed too well... :/ i can upload pics later
 

crow

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awesome! love this, and that you made the modification your own.
knew someone that heated chains and used them to brand his wrists.
and a girl that removed strips of flesh which created some really beautiful keloid scars.

cant wait to see the finished art, kudos!

edit, fixt typos
 
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Wawa

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Been working on this again! Cold weather, long sleeves all the time for healing burn scabs under, but fuck it.

First pic is some fully healed scars(they've turned lighter then skin color) from the last set of pictures.... Second is about five days fresh, will be an eyeball-tree!

While mostly none of it is as painful as it looks, this one is kinda nasty. I want it to be super vivid, so I've been peeling it and using irritants and sure can feel it. Gonna be awesome in a month!

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TheWindAndRain

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I did a skull and crossbones on my arm 12 years ago. Folded paperclips into the shape, held over fire until glowing orange then pressed into skin until cooled down. When my parents found out it was off to the mental hospital for a week. You can hardly make out what it is after all those years, I took a picture but the lighting wasn't showing it, I will try to add a picture so you guys see what it will look like after a decade. No offense but I think you will just end up looking like a burn victim or self harm enthusiast compared to a good stick n poke by itself. @Wawa are the ones that are still visible from your teenage years visible due to ink? Or mostly faded to blotchy patches

Here is a picture of mine, I know it is hard to see, that is my point. Out of like 50 pictures this is the best one sadly
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https://i.imgur.com/mKhZVbl.jpg
 
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Wawa

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The oldest 'recent' scars are over a year old and are distinct designs. It helps a lot to do them in stages and avoid intersecting lines healing at the same time. I also have skin that tends to scare easily and visibly.
 

anterrabae

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not big on tattooing myself unless theres a serious meaning and sequence of events leading up to it, enough to want the inner scars to be represented somehow on the outside..

along the same lines.. body modifications of any kind: when i change my look theres probably untold reasons why.. not just boredom.
finally found the right time to do a little stick and poke work on my face a few nights ago... didnt turn out half bad either. will do a proper selfie when the swelling has gone down.

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Hobo Mud

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Certainly looks painful. Ouch. Think I will stick with my tattoo's and tattooing however just because branding is not my thing doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Safe travels.
 

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