What is cold branding?
A very small number of people have experimented with cold branding using liquid nitrogen. “Freeze branding” is extremely rare, if not largely unheard of, among body modification enthusiasts, but many ranchers regard it as the best way to brand their animals as it does only minimal damage. The animal is easy to identify as any hair that grows from the brand grows in white, and this effect is permanent. How is cold branding done? The actual procedure is surprisingly similar to strike branding. Instead of immersing the (often copper) iron into the heat of a propane torch, the iron is bathed in a solution of liquid nitrogen (or any number of other cooling agents — another common solution is a 5% dry ice, 95% pure alcohol solution). The iron is then pressed to the flesh. The amount of time is determined by the thickness of the skin; the thicker, the longer. For horses and cows, this usually means between thirty seconds and a minute — for humans it should be far less. If a good brand has b
