The Standard

Issue date: 5/5/09 Section: Features

Branding is a less-practiced body art than tattooing, but it is around on campus.

Most people who are looking to get body art see branding as extreme, and many decide against brands in favor of tattoos. To some fraternities, though, branding is a way to show loyalty, and often, members get brands as a sign of devotion.

A couple of fraternities on campus, Phi Beta Sigma and Alpha Phi Alpha, frequently undergo branding as part of their organizations' traditions. Aaron Futrell, the president of Phi Beta Sigma, said that not everybody has to do it, but many members do.

"It's personal preference to get a brand, and some members decide to get tattoos instead," Futrell said.

Fraternities do the branding within their houses as part of their show of allegiance to their order. Oftentimes, members brand each other as part of the tradition. Branding is not used as a form of hazing, though, and members get brands at their own discretion.

"I got mine from a line brother when we were in St. Louis together," Futrell said. "I didn't think I wanted one at first, but then I saw that a lot of the other members had them."

Branding is a type of scarification, meaning that the design is a scar that is permanent on the skin and will not fade. Because of this, the designs have to be simple and less detailed.

Typically, people who brand want to have raised scars, which are called keloid scars. This requires picking at the scar as it heals to create more scar tissue, said Joseph McVeigh, owner of Little Tattoo 2.

"Keloid scars are easier to produce if the person with the brand has a lot of melanin in their skin," McVeigh said.

"The marks you make expand, so if you have too complex a design, then they will heal over other parts of the design and make it unrecognizable" McVeigh said. "Generally, you only want to make two or three marks on a design."

McVeigh said because branding involves burning the flesh, it should be done be someone who knows what they are doing.

"You want someone who has a license to make the brands, otherwise you could get an infection," McVeigh said.

"In Missouri there are 26 establishments that have licenses for branding," Travis Ford, director of communications for Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and

Professional Registration, said in an e-mail.

Ford said to become licensed, you need to complete the practitioner license application and submit the appropriate fee. There are no educational or training requirements, but the establishment must meet the requirements of the MDPR.

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