The sickening ritual – which echoes the branding of cattle, of Roman slaves and of Auschwitz prisoners – has given rise to Survivor’s Ink, an organization fundraising to help escaped sex-trafficking victims remove or cover up the tattoos. ‘It very much so is a psychological form of bondage,’ said Jennifer Kempton – founder of Survivors Ink and a survivor of sex trafficking. She now helps other women cover up their tattoos – like she did with the four inkings she was forced to have.

Just below her collar bone, beneath a bauble necklace, 17-year-old Adriana has a name delicately tattooed in swirly handwriting.

It is the name of her owner.

At the age of just 14, she was branded by a man named Cream who promised her everything in exchange for ‘doing some work’.

Beyond the physical abuse and emotional torment, this permanent scar acts as a daily reminder for thousands of women of violence, fear and oppression at the hands of tyrannical pimps.

Police forces have come to recognize certain ‘marks’ that distinguish victims of the slave trade.

Often, a girl will bear a crown with their captor’s initials.

Dollar signs and bags of money are also common. In many cases the women will have a name tattooed across their body in numerous places – above their groin, down their arm and on her neck.

Some are even branded with a unique ‘bar code’.

Adriana told CNN of her own tattoo: ‘I call it my war wound.’

The sickening ritual – which echoes the branding of cattle, of Roman slaves and of Auschwitz prisoners – has given rise to Survivor’s Ink, an organization fundraising to help escaped sex-trafficking victims remove or cover up the tattoos.

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