All of the information contained in this section is based on my personal experiences at a branding class, presented by Fakir Musafar at QSM on Saturday, December 8, 2001. In short, I got branded and was also able to brand a friend of mine. The large picture of the burned figures is my left thigh following the whole process.

The entire class and presentation had several sections including a slide show and presentation on Fakir, the history of deliberate burning for marking and his experiences branding people. The demonstrations included multi-strike branding, electro-cautery branding, cupping, then a demonstration of how a novice can easily do a multi-strike brand.

Multi-Strike Branding - heating small pieces of metal and using them to transfer heat to the skin for the purpose of permanent marks. The first two figures were burned using this technique.

Electro-Cautery Branding - using a medical cauterization tool to burn thin lines into the skin, in a variation on the technique above. The last and largest character was burned using this technique.

Cupping - the ancient acupuncture technique of healing by congestion, using glass globes vacumned onto the skin. Fakir presented a demo of this as a break between the master branding and the novice branding.

Novice Branding - how to do a simple brand for those who wish to do this themselves.

Healing Followup - See how the brand scabbed up, and then was peeled off to promote the development of marks on these pages.

Six Months Old - pictures of the brand at six months, taken during the Ancient Ways Festival in early June 2002. It is still a work in subtle progress.

Questions About Branding - My friend, FetishDiva Midori, asked me some really good questions about my branding experience, which I have answered in detail here.