Encylopedia of Body Adornment.pdf - Print My Tattoo

46 BRANDING
Army deserters were branded with a D, and, beginning in the eighteenth century,
the British started using cold iron brands for high-status criminals. Theft and many
other offenses were punished with a brand, often with the letter T. In France galley
slaves and convicts could be branded TF for forced labor (travaux forcés) until
1832. In Germany, branding was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Canada too branded military prisoners: D for Desertion and BC for Bad Character.
After the establishment of
Australia as a penal colony in
the eighteenth century, a great
many criminals arrived from
England, many with brands or
tattoos. Branding was prohibited
throughout the West in
the nineteenth century and replaced
by other methods of
corporeal punishment. Branding
was also used in India to
mark and punish criminals.
Today, in the West, branding
is no longer used to mark slaves
or criminals but continues to be
used to mark the ownership of
animals. It is also now used as
a form of voluntary body modification
that involves burning
an image or symbol onto a person’s
skin.
Today branding is often used
as a form of initiation for
groups like fraternities, street
gangs, and even in prison. It
serves as a test of endurance as
well as a demonstration of loyalty
and group solidarity, and
provides a rite of passage for
new group members. It’s a lifetime
reminder of what their
brotherhood means to them.
Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana. Photograph In the fraternity context, the
by Kimball, 1863. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints brand is usually the Greek let-
and Photographs Division, Washington, DC, No. LC-USZ62ter
of the organization.
90345.
It is rumored that George W.
Bush, while president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale, may have helped
introduce an initiation ritual for pledges that involved branding a D onto the buttocks
with a heated wire coat hanger.