Tie pins are so 84.
Branding Is The Hot New Fashion
By Tom Parmenter
North England correspondent
Updated:05:29, Friday November 02, 2007
Throughout history slaves and cattle have been branded - it was an excruciating symbol of ownership.
Branding close up
Now it's increasingly a fashion statement, a trend that has its roots in torture.
There are many different ways of doing it, some better than others.
The web is one of the main reasons for this one-time torture technique becoming trendy.
There are some horrendous "DIY" branding examples online - even if you were considering it, five minutes searching on YouTube could put you off the idea forever. Often it's as amateurish as heating up a coat hanger on a kitchen hob and then plunging it into someone's flesh.
Sky News Online was invited by Laura Drake, a 19-year-old student, to her first ever branding.
We're at a respectable tattoo studio in the centre of Sheffield. It is a world away from the online videos that celebrate this kind of art.
Everything is clean, the equipment sterile. Graham Martin is doing the branding; he has tattoo and piercing studios in Manchester and Sheffield.
Over the last few years he's seen more and more people wanting him to burn them: "We've had all sorts of people - I've branded teachers, police officers, it is very popular among young professionals who are looking for something different."
Laura Drake is branded
After explaining the process and the long lasting scarring, Graham sets about the branding. First he cleans Laura's back and then transfers a template for the star design that she's chosen.
The small pen-like implement has wire across the end. The wire is heated up to around 1000C and he carefully touches around the outline of the design. It takes five minutes, but the scar will be on Laura's back forever - it's cost £40 but she's delighted with the result.
"It hurt at first but you get used to it, when Graham was saying he was just doing the last bits I didn't mind cos I couldn't really feel it," she said.
Laura says her branding will be the first of many - but she will always get it done in a proper studio by someone who knows what they are doing.
Experts warn that any kind of branding will damage your skin, but it's widely acknowledged that doing a branding at home without expertise can be exceptionally dangerous.