It would have been frightening to meet Isaac Frasier. At least that was the impression from the wanted notice printed after he broke out of a New Haven jail in the summer of 1768. He was of middling stature with black hair and a face pitted from smallpox. Dressed in a brown coat, check shirt, and a pair of homespun breeches, Frasier's appearance showed signs of wear from a life on the run. Although only twenty-eight years old, his front teeth were already missing. What really made Frasier look so terrifying, however, were the markings imposed by others: both ears cropped and the branding two times on his forehead with the letter “B.” If, as Alexis de Toqueville claimed, “the language of law is a vulgar tongue,” it was even more common when engraved upon the body.

These markings were part of an official iconography that made felons the bearer of their own criminal record. In Frasier's case, they were inflicted after being caught for a series of crimes throughout Connecticut from breaking into stores, his specialty, to stealing linen. He was finally tried in New Haven and punished with whipping and the mutilated ears of a petty criminal. The “B” on his forehead stood for burglary. The next year, Connecticut would consider expanding its system of mnemonic tattoos by adding an “H” for horse stealing and, two years later, a “C” for counterfeiting. Both ears mutilated meant two convictions.