When you think of badass characters from South of the Border, you probably think of two things: Danny Trejo and Brian Decker. Brian had this to say about this hybrid cutting/branding Sugar Skull:

“I’m contemplating completely substituting skin removal with hyfrecator filling, as it’s much quicker and the results are seemingly better, in my opinion”

A few weeks ago Claire and I headed up to Pittsfield, Mass for the annual ROP Campout; I was able to catch up with a few friends who had healed scars for me to photograph; one of them was the always impressive V, who you may remember from here, here, and here.

The dagger brand by Mister Decker @Pure with a hyfrecator unit and her public cutting (done at SW3) a collaboration by Wayde Dunn & Brian. The pubic piece turns two years old in about a week.

Click through for a NOT SAFE FOR WORK full photo.

Two updates in one day? Crazy.
Taking a sick day today; damn summer flu has me knocked out and in sleep mode. In between naps and movies I’ve been going through old photo albums; these date back approximately 12 years or so. I took them at the South Beach Tattoo Tour that Crowe and Dwyer put on.

I could be remembering incorrectly, but I think this was the first time Steve and I met. At the time (1996-ish) he was making waves doing publicly what a lot of people were doing privately; which made him an enemy of established underground practitioners. At the time I was just getting the SPC site started and was publicizing things people were doing privately, so we were well aware of each other’s reputations when we finally sat down and began a two hour conversation, sitting on the floor of a hotel bar exchanging photographs and ideas… I found him to be effortlessly charming, a bit devilish and amazingly open about his background, his training and his technique.

I directly credit Steve’s ESU branding as a main influence on the newer generation of Scarification artists; his high detail branding (which caused a stir when it was featured in IN THE FLESH, BODY ART and BIZARRE) showed people that you could do more than just dots, chevrons and geometric shapes.

After the break there’s a photo of the finished brand (which took around 10 minutes or less). I photographed the client a few months after the branding was done; hopefully I’ll come across that photo soon!

Atom snapped this photo at SW2 in SoCal.
It’s one of my favorite photos from the events; focusing on the person wearing the branding/cutting brings out the personalities that make the Scarification community so amazing and usually makes for a much better image than an up close shot of cut/branded skin.

Cautery branding usually takes much less time than a comparable sized cutting with removal but still takes a lot out of the client. Michelle was a trooper and headed over to the photo studio immediately after being branded (electro-cautery by Monte Vogel) for this shoot and despite being in a significant amount of discomfort still ended up looking perfect.

Zoomed photo after the break.

Philip Barbosa photographed my friend Lolli at SW1 . The branding on her abdomen was done with a disposable cautery pen and was fully healed when this photo was taken in May of 2005.

Healed brands can change a lot over time; the scar tissue will continue to build or break, spreading much thicker than the original strikes. More after the break….

This was the original branding in 2004. Notice the line width in comparison to the image below.

This photo was taken yesterday (July 4th 2009) and shows the brand at five years.

My friend Jared recently joined the facial scarification club with this electrocautery brand done by Gregory in Columbus Ohio using a Ellman Surgitron unit. Picture of the healed branding follows after the jump.

We’ll try to get a better shot of the healed brand; but in the meantime-