By TOM KELLY

Last updated at 19:34 28 October 2007

It is an agonising procedure now considered too cruel to inflict on animals.

But human branding has become the latest twisted fashion trend for young professionals who regard straightforward tattoos and piercings as passe.

They happily pay up to £70 to have red-hot metal brands or cauterising pens, which burn at more than 1,000C, permanently scar their skin with a design.

The technique, which was once a brutal punishment for violent criminals and army deserters, carries the risk of nerve damage and infection.

But while animal welfare legislation has outlawed the hot branding of livestock, there is nothing to stop humans voluntarily having their skin burnt as a fashion statement.

Graham Martin, who offers branding at his Holier Than Thou studio in Manchester, said it was becoming popular with professionals.

The number of people asking him for the procedure has risen from just one a year in 2002 to more than one a week including requests from teachers, nurses and policemen.

Mr Martin, who is also president of the Tattoo and Piercing Industry association, said: "We have had people as young as 16 ask for a branding.

"We have turned them away because we would not tattoo anyone under the age of 18. But there is no legislation banning this."

Insurance clerk Paul Doling, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, had eight circles in two lines burnt onto his forearm, which took an hour to complete.

The 29-year-old said: "It was an incredible experience. There was smoke coming out of my arm and my burnt flesh smelled like a cross between chicken and bacon.

"A couple of friends had it done and I decided to go for it myself.

"It's about pushing yourself and seeing how much you can take. In the end the adrenaline rush masked the pain.

"Tattoos and piercings have become so common and mainstream now that people are looking for something different, which is why they are turning to branding.'

Dave Wiper of the Modern Savage tattoo studio in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said there has been huge increase in the number of people wanting to have a design permanently seared into their flesh.

On once occasion he branded a Muslim man who wanted a tattoo but cannot introduce ink to the body because of his religion.

Many of those who have their skin branded film the ordeal and post the footage video website YouTube.

A spokeswoman from the Health and Safety Executive said the body could not ban people from branding themselves if that is what they wanted to do, but had published a leaflet with regulations for to try to reduce the risks.

Human branding was introduced as a punishment in England during the middle ages.

By the 16th century gypsies were marked with a large V for vagabond on their breast, and street brawlers with F for fraymaker.

But the practice was banned in the mid 1850s because it was regarded as inhumane.

However, it continued to be used in other countries and is still used today in Iraq as a form of torture.