Branding: "represents the lifelong commitment"
 

The Telescope - Entertainment
Issue: 11/14/05
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Practice of branding continues with college fraternities
By Aline Mendelsohn
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. (KRT) - As his fraternity brothers heated a wire hanger shaped in the form of a Greek letter, Matthew Mitchell felt sick to his stomach.

For about 10 seconds, as the metal touched his skin, Mitchell gripped a fraternity brother's arm. It was the worst pain he had ever endured. But he chose to feel this pain, and later he was glad that he had.

Mitchell, a Phi Beta Sigma member at Florida A&M University, was going through a ritual known as branding, a burning of the skin that results in a scar.

A graduate of Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Fla., Mitchell had considered being branded for three years before going through with it.

Ultimately, he says, he wanted a physical representation of his bond with his fraternity - a symbol that would be with him forever. So he decided that it would be only fitting to have the letter Sigma branded on his left upper arm, close to his heart.

"I'm going to be a Sigma for life, until the day I die," says Mitchell, 23.

Branding has long been a form of body art, and in the past century it has emerged as a tradition among some black fraternity and sorority members. Some Greek organizations have policies banning the practice; others don't prohibit it, but don't condone it, either.

Fraternity brothers say it comes down to an individual choice of expression.

"It's just like a tattoo," says Aaron Brown, 23, Mitchell's fraternity brother at FAMU. "It marks a time and a life, a milestone in your life and a commitment to the organization."

The practice of branding dates back thousands of years, says Sandra Mizumoto Posey, a folklorist and professor at California State Polytechnic University who has researched the subject.

Branding is most commonly associated with slaves and cattle. But secret societies and religious orders, such as those in ancient Greece, also used brands throughout history to mark followers, Posey says.

As for the college Greek system, the earliest recorded incidence dates back to 1931, but because of the secretive nature of fraternities and sororities, it is difficult to determine an exact timeline, Posey says.

Although the practice is associated with black fraternities, there are exceptions. President George W. Bush is rumored to be branded with a symbol of his Yale fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Some believe that the ritual was inspired by African scarification traditions. And while branding does have ties to slavery, fraternity men with brands dismiss that connotation.

It's hard to determine exactly how many black fraternity members have brands, but Ricky L. Jones, University of Louisville professor and author of Black Haze: Violence, Sacrifice, and Manhood in Black Greek-Letter Fraternities, estimates that more than half do.

Members acquire brands for a number of reasons. Brands can display a sense of belonging, a mark of the successful completion of a challenging pledgeship. And they can be a symbol of manhood, of toughness.

"It's one of the most prominent and personal ways you can adopt something into your identity," Posey says. "You are physically changing the shape of who you are."

"It's an indication: `I am a member, I'm proud of that fact,'" says Tamara L. Brown, editor of "African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision," a book that features Posey's research on branding.

Brands often appear in discreet places such as the chest or the left upper arm. But when they are visible, bearers often display them with pride. Posey points out that on the cover of the sports book "Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan," Jordan appears shirtless, showing off his Omega brand.

Louisville professor Jones is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, and has two Kappa brands: one on his left arm and one on his chest.

"I saw it as something nothing more damaging than a tattoo," Jones says.

A brand is different in character than a tattoo, however.

It is achieved when a hot iron or piece of metal - often a hanger shaped like a Greek letter - is pressed to the skin for about 10 seconds. A wound forms in the shape of the metal and eventually becomes a scar, explains James Spencer, a St. Petersburg dermatologist and professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

No treatment can completely erase a brand, Spencer says.

"You're killing the skin," Spencer says.

And in doing so, there's a risk of infection and keloids, puffy scars that are a particular risk for African-Americans, Spencer says.

Unlike tattooing, branding is not regulated in Florida. The Department of Health's Board of Medicine views it as an extreme procedure that should be performed by a licensed physician.

In fraternities, a brother usually performs the branding, and it is sometimes a ceremonial event. Members say it hurts, for sure, but opinions on the pain level range from excruciating to a little sting. Some say tattooing is more painful.

Most fraternity brothers say branding is voluntary, but "certainly there is peer pressure," says Hank Nuwer, author of "Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing and Binge Drinking."

Hazing researchers say they haven't heard of involuntary instances of branding. Still, even some fraternities dislike the practice

"We frown on it," says Tyrone Patton, international grand executive secretary for Iota Phi Theta, a black fraternity. "Why would any human being sit still and allow someone to burn and sear his flesh with a hot iron?"

Fraternity brothers counter that the brand reflects loyalty to their organizations.

When Brian Jenkins first arrived at the University of Central Florida, he viewed fraternities only through hard-partying stereotypes. Yet when Jenkins was introduced to Phi Beta Sigma, he changed his view. He saw the organization as a way of life and wanted to show his affiliation with a brand.

"It shows I'm part of something big," Jenkins says.

William Madison expressed a similar sentiment.

The brand "represents the lifelong commitment to the ideals of the fraternity," says Madison, 20, a University of Florida junior and Omega Psi Phi member who received his brand at the beginning of the semester. "It makes me feel like I'm closer to living what our fraternity stands for."

branded....
 

Dick Hall, my TKE field mentor, would occasionally talk about the
branding in the Zeta Psi chapter at UCLA...he was hired by the
local alumni to help this outift by being somewhat a live-in advisor while he was Assistant Dean of Men at UCLA. Dumb.
I would often listen as he would talk of that chapter doing the deed, and have since known of its widespread practice amongst
some of the black fraternities. Dumb. The chapter eventually went under, by the way.
Like hazing, it is hard for this rustic Kansan to conceive hurting a
man one day and the next calling him brother.
Like the present jewelry craze, I simply think it's primitive; call
me narrow-minded if you will, it is still really dumb.
There are practical and more meaning ways to express loyalty and caring. Branding...stupid, likewise nose rings, duh, dumb.
Just an outburst of an old man commenting on an idiotic thing.

As I have always said, "It Dont Work For Me"!

I am totaly Stupid!:rolleyes:

eeek! :rolleyes:

So is gouging out your own eyeball. Really. I bet it's tough to get it back in just right.

I saw a guy at Disney World with two Omegas overlapping branded onto his arm. I guess that article kind of explains why. I didn't know that some frats branded each other.

There was a fraternity on our campus which branded all of its members with a Sigma - the brother would wear a t-shirt, and the Sigma was from the bottom of the t-shirt to his elbow.

Until you've seen a keloid - which branding often causes, you have no idea how disgusting they can be. Darker pigmented people of all races are more likely to develop them, but the tendency towards them is also inherited. This isn't a bad one (from getting a pierced ear):

http://www.aocd.org/skin/dermatologi...d_hypert_1.gif

Why anyone would do this purposely to oneself is beyond anything I can consider intelligent.

Branding does not represent a "lifelong commitment"... it represents stupidity.

If you want to show a lifelong commitement pay alumni/ae dues and/or join an alumni/ae association.

bless you, Texas princess--
 

The statement by you is even endorsed by an old codger. You
got a good grade from this old prof!

As someone who enjoys body modification in all its forms (scarification, branding, piercing, tattooing), I'd say as long as you do it clean, and If it is voluntary (i.e. we're not going to hold you down and MAKE you do it) and with consenting adults, then do it. The branding aesthetic doesn't appeal to me personally, but I have several friends who DO have brands (not greek related) and they are quite beautiful. Body modification is extremely personal, people do it for a miryad of reasons, but my own personal reason was that I LIKED the aesthetic, I LIKE having my lobes stretched, I LIKED chosing my body adornment...if in some small way it was about "making my body my own."

I know that the "ritual" (yes, I know, not part of national ritual, but the ritual as in ritualized) is about the organization and personal desire for allegiance and there's something to be said about being branded by a brother, but I wish that more people would get branded by professionals and not with "coat hangers" that contain nickle and other things that are harmful. Professional body artists are far more qualified and will yield a clearer result with less complications in a cleaner enviornment.

I agree with PhoenixAzul. I too am a supporter of mods in all of their variations. (I have 8 ear piercings from 10 guage to 16 guage, and a tattoo with more on the way) However, I believe that the person receiving the brand should be completely sober, and should do so in a professional environment. It makes me a little nervous to think of someone receiving a brand from a bent wire hanger.

I don't think it is fair to equate branding with stupidity. I know several highly intelligent people with brands. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers and engineers. They own their own homes, cars and have families. They are not only active and financial in their respective organizations, but they hold executive positions. Getting branded was something that they decided they wanted to do. If you don't think it is something you would do, that's fine. But don't judge someone else.

-slight hijack...

It seems that body modification, or at least those at the fringe have been going to further extremes over the past few decades. Due to these increasing extremes, I have often wondered when we start to see amputation as a popular form of body modification?

I've heard that some have actually chosen to do this.

It's also not fair to throw in piercing with branding.

Branding is permanent (unless you have skin that just heals really well, which some do)....my nose piercing would be gone tomorrow if I left the stud out.

I have a trainer who has 10 omega's branded on his body. He is quite proud of them and "wears" them as a badge of honor. Though I would never brand myself (though I have considered a tatoo of my letters), I respect what his brands represent to him. Do I wish he had not used a wire hanger? Absolutely, but that was a choice he made.

The tough part was watching him try to explain it to a non-Greek trainer who couldn't for the life of him understand why he chose to do it. One things for sure, his pride was evident.

you'd be surprised on this site.

I have 4 holes in each ear...that is enough for me!
Branding? Ouch! No thank you! But that is just me...

As long as it's voluntary I say do what you want to do! :)

When I was in college, I hung out with a lot of Pi Kapps, and almost all of them had some type of Pi Kappa Phi-related tattoo. The letters, or the crest, or that star/sword symbol. It was a way to show pride and loyalty to their fraternity.

To me, branding accomplishes the same thing. But I do agree that it's riskier than going to a tattoo parlor. I certainly wouldn't have let one of my sisters give me a tattoo!! So to let a sister/brother brand you - wow, that's trust! Not for me, but I understand why people do it.

And as for it being dangerous, so is binge drinking - and lots of college students (greek or not) and many adults do that! And smoke cigarettes, and ride in cars without seatbelts, etc etc etc... A risky activity is sometimes more attractive because of the risk (not to say that's a good thing, just stating fact).

don't give a rat's
 

I don't care if you have a bone in your nose or whatever.
BUT don't blame it on loyalty, race, custom, etc if you cannot
find a job.
If you wanna wear a hair shirt or live around a university, do so.
Blame it on stupidity.

I personally don't have a problem with the look on others.... but I don't want any of it myself... I prefer painless things myself...
I have friends with our symbols but none with the letters tattooed.

I think it's ignorant to say that just because people decide to brand themselves that they're stupid for doing it.

Who cares??? I know that a lot of people who have brands in NPHC orgs got it AFTER they became members, so please don't assume that this is what they do during their processes.

I don't know of anyone that has got their letters permenantly on them that did it during pledging.
I think that would be completely disrepectful of the letters since tech. you haven't been granted permission to wear them.

1. OF COURSE IT'S VOLUNTARY!! Nobody's holding you down (unless it's to keep you from flinching)

2. It's never done during the process. Black greeks DO NOT allow "pledges" to wear their letters before becoming full members.

3. THEY USUALLY ARE ACTIVE BEYOND COLLEGE (it's what we do ;) )

4. Ears are permanent too :rolleyes:

5. oh and honeychile, try this one instead
http://eu-omegapsiphi.com/images/bruhzright_5.jpg

FYI, I was avoiding the truly nasty photos of bad keloids. I have one from getting my ears pierced, but not as bad as the photo I showed - and as a freckled redhead who has survived one round of skin cancer, I think I qualify as fair (if not pale) skinned.

My mother is very fair skinned, yet after two heart surgeries, she has a keloid that stands roughly 3/4" out from her skin. Forgive me if I see doing the same on purpose as not the wisest thing one can do with one's skin.

I agree. I am not against body modification at all (if I said I was I'd be a really big hypocrite!), but only if it's completely voluntary...no one should be made to do anything to their bodies that they don't want to do. However, I think if people choose to be branded, they need to do it safely as with any other kind of body modification, like others have already mentioned.

I guess it is each person's own body, but it bugs the shit out of me that people don't seem to think about what's going to happen down the road. Yeah it's fine to do some of this stuff in college, but what's it going to look like down the road? Like the lower back tattoos- do you know how ugly that's going to be after several kids and as you get older and wider/saggier? Brands seem to mainly be on the arm... which I think is scary because if it gets infected or something, screwing with your arm is a big deal. But it can be covered up in a business environment.

Sorry to you GCers who do it, but the ear stretching thing really annoys me, personally. It's a part of your body that can't be covered up easily, and you're doing something to it that would require surgery to fix. It's not like a piercing, which will pretty much heal itself in most cases, or only leave a small scar. But it's a big, huge hole in your ear. When you get out in the professional world, for most jobs that is not going to be something that's acceptable- a big piece of plastic/pvc/whatever or a big hole in your ear. Rightfully so, because it looks ridiculous, IMO (which I know i'll get attacked for, but it's my opinion). It's not a religious or cultural thing- like some of the tribes in Africa that you would see in National Geographic stretching various parts of their body, etc. In a lot of cases, it's middle class white kids from suburbia doing it, who do it just to be "cool" or "different" (lol, though I usually laugh at most things kids do to be "different" because in reality they're just the same as the others in their group).

Most of us go into body modification knowing full well that we have to go incognito in the work sector. My boyfriend has a tattoo on his forearm...no big deal, he wears long sleeves most of the time anyways (And he's planning a full sleeve for later). I'm planning a tattoo for the future, and I'm thinking about placement that will be good in the future (For the reasons you stated, which are all valid), considering the size I want it to be/detail it has to have. With ears, the current plugs I have in my ears do a good job of masking the fact that my ears are stretched. My ears are only 6 ga. (4mm), but if I take my earings out you can see daylight through them. By wearing plugs with a solid color front, it just looks like I'm wearing flat earings. A professor who I've known for 3 years now didn't even realize that my ears were stretched till I took my plugs out one day. These are what my plugs look like (I have ones that are made out of amber that I wear often too, but these are made out of pyrex glass)
http://www.bodyartforms.com/images/DSDP.jpg


Since I'm starting to get more jobs as a freelancer, I have to keep my body mods to a "church acceptable" level. At the same time, there's a bit of fun in knowing that you have this piece of art hidden under your clothing that only certain people can see, or that you reveal only in your "normal people" clothes. And I didn't stretch my ears for any tribal or spiritual reason...I did it because I like the aesthetic. I love the way it looks.

I think that a lot of non-mods think that we don't think about these kinds of things. With every piercing or tattoo that I get, I think about it. I know that I have to have a way to disguise it at certain points and other points I can relax and have it visible. The double life is not easy, but I've been able to live a successful and productive life with my mods visible 99 percent of the time.

Se I wasn't posting it to be disgusting. I understand where you're coming from but My picture was to show what the brands look like.

and at the same time, not all brands keloid out or stand out like the picture(s) above. There's a guy at my YMCA who swims and his Omega brand is very visible, but it isn't raised out from his skin, it is just sort of "there". Keloiding is very dependent upon the individual, the size/gauge of the brand/piercing , and how they healed it. If you intentionally irritate a brand/scarificiation (intentional patterned cutting of the flesh) then it will most likely protrude from the flesh. Some people even rub inks into the scars to create a different tone. That's one thing that I will say about body mods, is that it is very individualized and unique to the individual,and you can't predict how one person will heal over another. Most people heal *fine* but others don't heal so well. It is part of the risk you take.

But Danielle, you can put a corn dog in it. :)

Whatever someone wants to do...different strokes for different folks. Quite frankly, I think I'd rather see people with tats/brands/etc that are taken care of than people fake-baking their skin 3 times a week and thinking it's "safe" because it's not the actual sun.

Sorry about the miscommunication. As I said before, there were several men in my classes who had the Sigma branded on them. IF I were to be into branding (which is ever so unlikely, for the reasons I stated above), those Omegas look pretty decent.


33girl, you're really trying hard to get me on my skin cancer soapbox!!

Oh, Lord, yes. Great point!

Most everyone I know with 'body modifications' has done it responsibly with full consideration of the amount of aftercare needed, the placement, and so forth. It's great if people do it that way. But yes, I really hate seeing these young ladies with tattoos on their hips and places like that...it's like, "c'mon...did you think about what that's going to look like in 40 years?"

I think most people do think about the long-term effect, but don't really care. Those factors could be the reason why people place their tattoos in certain places. I had people ask me the same question and my response was and still is what difference will a tattoo make when my skin is already wrinkly and sagging? I know that at 50 or 60, I will not be making an effort to put my aging body on display let alone any of my tattoos.

Because my head doesn't rotate 360, I've got to contort my body in a mirror just to see my tattoo. So not seeing it everyday causes me to forget about it and not be annoyed to the point where I'm thinking why did I do this. I could very well get annoyed at the thought of having them when I get older and if I do there's the option of laser removal. Given the many other ailments older people can fall prey to, my tattoos will be the least of my worries.

Somewhat off track, but I once heard about a TriDelt who had a dolphin tattooed near her navel. Once she had a child, though, it looked more like Shamu!

I remember all the girls and guys in high school and college that tanned on a daily basis. I can't wait for my 25 year class reunion. I will be one of the few there that actually look their age or younger! :) Damn, I should have been a dermatologist!

My chapter has a star shield branding iron…























for our boots.

ettore es autzen
 

neuri la gumbahdah, Wilton Norman Chamberlain, se lancagos,
ondo es carrasco, Alpha Phi Alpha. Nacupenda.

It's not your body, you don't have to look at it, you don't have to endure the pain...Sooo I'm failing to see why it's a big deal?

I think getting anything besides your ear pierced is quite useless but I don't assume the person who CHOOSES to do so is silly nor can I assume that he or she is "misguided" as many of you have eluded to. As was stated earlier; NPHC members do not recieve brands during their process and branding cannot be equated with being ignorant because my otolaryngologist friend has a huge one on his right arm.;)

so?
 

There just might be one stupid laryngologist.