Body Painting: A Temporary Artistic Experience

When a person wishes to have his or her body painted it is known as body painting and is unlike tattooing since it is a temporary phenomenon and is painted on the human skin to last for several hours or in some cases, for a couple of weeks. Traditional body painting began with clay and natural pigments and were commonly found in most tribal cultures and used for ceremonies and still survives among the aborigines of Australia and in the Pacific Islands as well as in tribes of Africa.

In India, there is a semi-permanent form of body painting known as Mehndi that makes use of dyes made of henna and is practiced for painting brides in India as well as in the Middle East. The popularity of Mehndi has grown since the late 1990s and is now much sought after by young women in the Western world. Also, body painting is widely used in dramatics with actors and also, clowns having their faces as also their bodies painted.

Body painting has seen a revival ever since the 1960s and this may be attributed to the more permissiveness of social mores with regard to nudity and debates rage hotly about whether body painting is legitimate art form or not. It may be seen to have been revived around 1933 when Max Factor body-painted a model with their new make-up formula that targeted Hollywood films, primarily. There is nothing however to insist on that body painting need be only performed on nude bodies as it may also be localized to small designs on a certain area of the body.

Body Painting Festivals

At present, this way of painting bodies is becoming very popular amongst both professionals as well as amateurs and there are body painting festivals held annually across the world that brings together body painters, both professional as well as amateurs. Football matches, rave parties and certain festivals are also occasions for a person or fan to get body painting done on them. The World BodyPainting Festival is held at Seeboden in Austria and is the biggest art event that attracts thousands of visitors.

Also, the famous 1960s supermodel, Veruschka has been called a favorite of body painters and her images in the book Transfigurations that has her photographed by photographer Holger Trulzsch have been widely copied. And, ever since the 1990s, body painting is become more acceptable to Americans and famous body painters include Playboy’s Mark Frazier, Robert Johnson from dvnc-arts and Leroy Roper of Leroytoper.com.