Scars (especially the ones on the arm from small pox vaccines) leave a noticeable impression on the skin, and are quite permanent, barring cosmetic surgery. If there is a tool that can create scars in the form of patterns, you essentially have a 3D tattoo in relief form!

These embosses can be later tattooed to colour them.
-- quanta, Aug 26 2000

In SoCal (and likely the rest of the entire world, too) this has been being done for many years already. Most tattoo/piercing salons also offer scarification - my best friend got a spider on her ankle almost 5 years ago.
-- Caroline Rose, Aug 27 2000


Been done for thousands of years in some places...
-- StarChaser, Aug 27 2000


Some people even get themselves BRANDED. Yeowtch!
-- arghblah, Apr 19 2001


I wonder how much it'd be worth to McDonald's if I got a golden arch embossed on each buttcheek...
-- absterge, Apr 20 2001


My high school boyfriend "embossed" my initials into his arm, in rather large letters. (rather dumb of him, we broke up a week later and now 13 years later he's stuck with the scars.) Quite a few people in my school "embossed" tribal or celtic patterns into their skin. Not me - ow!
-- Mamamoose, May 15 2003



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