Branding with liquid nitrogen?

June 27, 2007 2:39 PM

Any good sources of information on freeze branding for humans?

I'm not big on body modding, but I'm interested in getting work done to remember a difficult period in my life. I've decided against tattooing or hot iron branding, but I can't find any good info about freeze branding except as applied to livestock. I'm looking for images of freeze brands after they've healed, descriptions of the process, the amount of detail and size of brands, body mod shops that actually do it or, failing that, advice for the do-it-yourself type.

posted by logicpunk to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (11 answers total)

Here's a little information from BME.
posted by box at 2:44 PM on June 27, 2007

If you poke around BME further, you might find people writing up accounts of their own experiences with freeze branding. From the page I linked, however, it doesn't appear to be a very popular or widespread technique.
posted by box at 2:54 PM on June 27, 2007

Just from reading the description on the first link, it sounds like it would be extremely painful. I got a very tiny liquid nitrogen burn once, and it took quite a while to heal up. Not something I think I would EVER go through voluntarily.
posted by pupdog at 3:23 PM on June 27, 2007

Would it even show that much on human skin? On all the animals I've seen that have it, their hair just grows in white- you can't even feel a scar underneath.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:43 PM on June 27, 2007

Any sort of burn, be it cold or hot, is going to take a LONG time to heal. It's also going to hurt like hell, because you're damaging that layer of the skin.

Freeze-branding, according to this FAQ can't be as detailed as a tattoo could, so that's a huge downside. The brands also expand while healing.

I couldn't find any pictures of the aftermath of the technique, but the stuff I saw on heat burn scarification kinda mad me queasy, and I have a very strong stomach.
posted by Verdandi at 3:47 PM on June 27, 2007

i think that if you can't find enough information about it on the web, it doesn't sound prevalent enough to have a safety protocol. i mean, you don't want to leave this sort of thing to the amateur hour.
posted by thinkingwoman at 3:49 PM on June 27, 2007

I'm guessing that it will be very hard to get freeze-branded by any professional artist unless you are a member (or close to a member) of the "underground" body modification scene. You looked at tattooing and hot iron branding, but how about some other options:

Skin Removal

Chemical Scarification

Tattoo Gun Scarification

Good luck, and my email's in the profile if you have any other questions.
posted by nursegracer at 3:53 PM on June 27, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the responses so far. One of the reasons I'm interested in freeze branding is that the results aren't as obvious as other scarification techniques; I'd prefer something subtle, possibly unnoticeable unless you were looking for it.

Thanks for the tattoo gun suggestion, nursegracer. That seems to meet the subtlety clause. I'll look into it further.
posted by logicpunk at 4:24 PM on June 27, 2007

If you are going for subtle, how about a UV (black light) reactive tattoo? http://www.tattooartists.org/Gal3975_UV_Blacklight_Ink.asp
posted by jammnrose at 4:31 PM on June 27, 2007

I read an experience about freeze branding on BME several years ago, and that's the only bit I've ever heard about it. From what I remember of that story, it seemed it would only work if you have rather dark skin.
posted by gally99 at 1:47 PM on June 28, 2007

logicpunk, if subtle and unnoticeable is what you're looking for, you may want to consider white ink tattoos as well.
posted by hindmost at 10:46 PM on June 28, 2007