I can't find anywhere in the fraternity documents any statement on Tattooing at all. Branding is most clearly mentioned in the Pledge Manual
http://www.apo.org/publications/docu...edgemanual.pdf
in the Membership Policies (p 54-55) & the Risk Management (p 57-58).
The membership policies ban it as part of the pledging program, the Risk Management policies are not nearly as narrow. The way that I read the RMP, in the extreme, an Alpha Phi Omega brother who after having graduated joins an Omega Psi Phi and receives a brand in honor of Omega Psi Phi has violated the Risk Management policy. However, the fraternity also definately wants to limit the posibility of neophytes (in this terminology, those who have been initiated, but who have not had a line cross over after them) being expected to get branded to be viewed as a "full brother".
The examples I've used here are from the HBCU community, but I have never heard of branding in a chapter at a HWI.
Randy