Human Branding

Scouring the earth and wikipedia for all the clues

THOSE SICK BASTARDS

Stigma is a Greek word that ORIGINALLY referred to markingS or tattooS WHICH WERE CUT or burned into the skin of CRIMINALS, SLAVES AND TRAITORS FOR PURPOSES OF IDENTIFICATION as blemished or morally polluted persons

Human branding, or stigmatizing, is the process by which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person with the intention that the resulting scar is permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron. It therefore uses the physical techniques of livestock branding on a human. Historically, this was done as a punishment or to identify an enslaved, oppressed, or otherwise controlled person. It is also practiced as a “rite of passage“, e.g. within a tribe, or to signify membership of or acceptance into an organization, or as a form of body modification.

Etymology

The English verb to burn, attested since the 12th century, is a combination of Old Norse brenna "to burn, light", and two originally distinct Old English verbs: bærnan "to kindle" (transitive) and beornan "to be on fire" (intransitive), both from the Proto-Germanic root bren(wanan), perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root bhre-n-u, from base root bhereu- "to boil forth, well up".

In Dutch, (ver)branden mean "to burn", brandmerk a branded mark; similarly, in German, Brandzeichen means "a brand" and brandmarken, "to brand". Sometimes, the word cauterize is used. This is known in English since 1541, and is derived via Medieval French cauteriser from Late Latin cauterizare "to burn or brand with a hot iron", itself from Greek καυτηριάζειν, kauteriazein, from καυτήρ kauter "burning or branding iron", from καίειν kaiein "to burn". However cauterization is now generally understood to mean a medical process – specifically to stop bleeding.

United States

As criminal punishment – For slavery – As religious initiation

Britain

Persisting practices

Generally voluntary, though often under severe social pressure, branding may be used as a painful form of initiation, serving both as endurance and motivation test (rite of passage) and a permanent membership mark, seen as male bonding. Branding is also practiced as a form of body art and sometimes in BDSM relationships.