Branding was very painful... The process consists of a small cauterizing pen (basically like a saudering iron) that heats up to about a thousand degrees and the design is drawn onto the skin. It took two pens to complete my design.

Many people cringe when they see it. Branding is a much more painful expression of body modification than tattooing and it is also less precise. The design's clarity is dependant upon how the piece scabs up and how the body heals itself rather than a design that has been done in ink.

In order for a brand to scar properly, the scab must be pulled several times. It's actually more painful than the initial burning of the skin.

The initial pain of the heating pens and the scabbing reminds me of the many trials and struggles that I have gone through. A similar analogy can be drawn up between brandng and the refining process of gold. The gold must be superheated to extreme temperatures to be metled down. As it cools, impurities float to the surface and, like the scab must be picked, you must scrape away the impurities in order to refine it. The pain is a reminder of who I was in the past, and mistakes that I need not repeat again.

The heat is symbolic of cleansing. God uses His holy fire to burn away the chaff and impurities of our lives and refines us to make us more like Him in every facet of His being.

The design itself is that of the Jesus Fish with a cross in the eye. This reminds me that I am to be a fisher of men, representing Jesus in everything I do. While I am not perfect at it and I certainly have messed up, the cross in the eye reminds me that I need to keep my eyes on Jesus' love for me, so I can in turn share that love with others.

Over all, the branding is a physical representation of God's mark upon my heart and my life. I don't bear the mark of a religious philosophy, but much rather the most important person in my life, not all that dissimilar from someone tattooing the name of their wife, mother, father or kids on themselves.