hog slapper

September 27, 2021April 5, 2022

How to Remove a Pig Tattoo

Sorry, this blog isn’t about that time you and your friends went out and drank way too much and on a dare you all ended up getting a bunch of truly horrible tattoos that you really, really regretted the next morning, and now you’re desperate to get yours removed before your mom or your girlfriend sees it. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the wrong place.

No, this is actually about domesticated hogs and the various ways a pig farmer can easily identify individual animals within a drove for later processing—specifically, by tattooing a series of numbers and/or letters on the pig’s ear or shoulder or back. For the ear, you use a special ear tattoo plier; and for the back or shoulder, you use a hog shoulder-slapper.

Hog shoulder slapper — Hog Shoulder-Slapper

Both tools use special metal needlepoint alphanumeric characters, called dies, that can be slipped in and out of the applicator as needed. Last but not least, you need livestock tattoo ink, which comes in green or black colors.

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Hog Tattooing Made Easy

Whether destined for market or bred to live on the farm, it is important—and in most areas legally required—that livestock be clearly identified. Livestock identification can take several forms, including tagging, tattooing, electronic implants, high-tech transponders, or a combination of these methods. However, when it comes to hogs, one of the most common methods used is tattooing, as it is less costly than branding, damages the animal’s skin less, and is less painful and stressful to the animal.
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The ABCs of Hog Tattooing

Hog with ear tattoo and ear tag

One of the most basic goals of good livestock management is to keep track of your animals, which means employing a reliable system of identification. Among the various methods available to positively identify cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and other livestock, the most common include tagging (with plastic ear or neck tags); and, at the high-tech end, RFID (radio frequency identification) using a transponder to relay the animal’s info and location.

Whatever method you adopt, it should be appropriate for the type of animal and the size of the herd. Moreover, since none of the aforementioned methods is completely foolproof—ear tags can fall off, transponders can malfunction—it is prudent to have a redundant identification system in place.

Whether used as the primary system or a backup, one of oldest and the most reliable methods is animal tattooing, which is especially popular among hog farmers. Not only is hog tattooing reliable, it is fast, simple, portable, and cost-effective. It is also suitable for every stage of the hog’s productive life cycle, from piglet to farm to slaughterhouse to market. Last but not least, hog tattooing enjoys the advantage of being a permanent form of identification.
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