Getting Tattooed

No, not what you're thinking!  We didn't get tattoos.  But we did tattoo the ears of both our our little heifers.  We'll show you how we turned our barn into a tattoo parlor Sunday afternoon.  First, the reason we have to tattoo them is to register them with the American Jersey Association and to also show them at the livestock shows. Fortunately we didn't have to purchase a tattoo device.  Our 4-H office lends it out to members.  You can see the device below with a tube of green tattoo ink.

Getting ready to get inked

The first thing you do is determine the identification marking that you want on the ears.  We chose BP1 for Lili and BP2 for Amy.  BP stands for Benjamin Patrick, Benjamin's first and middle names.  Since Russ graduated and is no longer showing, we are registering them in Benjamin's name.  You can see that I've arranged the alpha numeric pieces in the correct position and have fastened them down.  If you were to turn them on their sides, you would see that the alpha numeric pieces are actually spikes that are pointed.

BP1: This will be Lili

Cows have lots of hair that grow in their ears.  You'll want to get some clippers and shave all the hair out of the ears.

Shaving the ear hair

It takes a while to do this and calves don't like the noise of the clippers or its vibration around their ears.

Once the ear is clean-shaven, you take the green tattoo ink and rub it liberally in the area that you'll tattoo the markings.

Green tattoo ink

You put it right on the area that you've painted green and squeeze down on the pliers. This will puncture the ears and leave markings that we selected.  When you apply pressure, the calves let you know that it is uncomfortable, much the same as I would assume it feels to get your ears pierced.  It bleeds a little bit and you rub the green ink into the punctures in order to get the ink in the holes.

Squeezing the tattoo device into Lili's ear

We tattoo both ears.  You can see below we're tattooing Amy's ears.  The green markings give you a general idea of where she'll be marked.

Now it is Amy's turn.,

Now we have them both marked and they'll be easy to identify.