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THOSE SICK BASTARDS

Human Branding

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

Whipping and branding of thieves in Denmark, 1728
Whipping and branding of thieves in Denmark, 1728

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.

United States

As criminal punishment – For slavery – As religious initiation

Britain

He was among the members of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries. In 1656, Nayler achieved national notoriety when he re-enacted Christ's Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem by entering Bristol on a horse. He was imprisoned and charged with blasphemy.
A replica of a slave branding iron originally used in the Atlantic slave trade, on display at the Museum of Liverpool, England.

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. 

Frat members showing off their brands

Protests

the words

Captive labor is the backbone of a slave economy

The Words

đŸ”„ Salt Snatchers and The Cosmic Stick-Up of Your Soul’s Swagger (with receipts)

đŸ”„ Salt Snatchers and The Cosmic Stick-Up of Your Soul’s Swagger (with receipts)

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đŸ‘ïž Sodium & SCN⁻ as Ocular Guardians

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