“If your arm isn’t big enough, I’m going to have to use your chest.”Īlthough fraternity members with brands talk about their brotherhood as sacrosanct, branding has also become a pop culture expression of machismo, according to Walter Kimbrough, a director of student activities and leadership at Old Dominion University who wrote his dissertation on black Greek letter organizations. “If you really want to show you’re a Que, I’m not going to use some little circle,” he says. He usually makes his brands on the spot, but he happens to have a few on hand in his kitchen cabinet. Of his seven brands, three are on his back and four run diagonally across the left side of his behind: big, interlocking Ques that seem to want to dance their way to his spine. One time for each of his fellow Omega initiates. After his 1995 initiation, Nut learned by carefully watching another hit man. Nut, who asks that his name not be used so that his branding and his art career remain separate, has perfected his craft he’ll fashion a wire coat hanger into a plain Omega, make it asymmetrical for the “stepping Que” effect, or customize it with a dramatic thunderbolt.Īlthough there’s a certain artistry in the design, the skill is in the hit. Sherman and others went looking for him when they wanted a lasting way to punctuate their allegiance to the frat.īecause everybody knows Nut is a “hit man.” But the brothers of Omega Psi Phi also know the 6-foot-3 graduating senior majoring in sculpture and psychology by another name. At Howard, most folks call him “Nut” for his willingness to go to extremes. Typically, according to Lyles, each chapter has somebody to turn to for branding. It seemed to signify the ‘till the day I die-ness’ of it all.” One of the things that I guess solidified branding as something to do is the things that our fraternity is based on-manhood, scholarship, etc. “It took on a kind of widespread usage-mainly among the Omegas first, then the Kappas and Alphas began to do it also. “Historically, branding probably came in vogue in the 1950s and 1960s,” says Lyles, an Omega since he was 17 who has brands on his right biceps and over his heart. Michael Lyles, 35, a Washington child welfare attorney who also heads his own Maryland law practice, has studied the historical origins of fraternity branding and its relation to African scarification practices and says burning carries a symbolism that crosses many cultures. “It’s a ritual to say we are brothers, we are sisters, you are officially part of us,” Borrero says. In the last 10 years, branding has become a typical form of gang “tagging,” says Michael Borrero, a professor and director of the Institute for Violence Reduction at the University of Connecticut who has worked in gang outreach for more than 30 years. This was more ritualistic and traditional than the juvenile self-mutilation. He entered the University of Akron at 16 and transferred to Howard a year later.Īfter joining the fraternity at Howard, he says, “initially, I wasn’t going to get a brand, but I thought about it and equated the whole fraternity life as another rite of passage. Sherman credits the pre-college program Upward Bound and rites-of-passage activities in high school with turning him from his gangster ways. But while brands might be spiritual, sexual or ceremonial, they’re always hot. Gang members brand themselves to claim their set, while for others, brands are an extension of green Mohawks and multiple nose rings. For some black Greek fraternity members (and fewer white ones) it’s a long-standing tradition, but experts say it’s also become something of a fad. Other folks have Greek letters melted into their calves or seared into their forearms.Īlthough doctors warn there can be complications-infection, excessive scarring, designs gone wrong-around the country lots of people get branded. Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith sported a brand on his left arm for a 1993 cover of Sports Illustrated. Michael Jordan’s brand, hidden on his chest, is more discreet. Many people watching this year’s NCAA Final Four tournament caught sight of the big horseshoe-shaped scar on the left arm of University of North Carolina point guard Shammond Williams.
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