The Chronicles of Body Painting:

 A narration of using the human body as a canvas throughout time

        Body Painting has long been something that has fascinated me and for one reason or another throughout my life I have fallen into opportunities where I got to experiment with this fun and niche art form. It started with face painting as a child, became a party trick around the age of 18 and when I was 20-22 my former roommate and I would do it on a Tuesday just because! Later I got asked to do live body painting during concerts at bars and clubs. I eventually worked my way to body painting exhibitions in galleries, runway shows and now I am an artist for Eyes on You Tampa that does body painting for hire.

           Its been quite a personal progression for me in this medium and recently I've become more and more  curious about the evolution of the medium itself. So here's a little interesting chronicle I have put together about the origins and history of body painting. It is not a complete or thorough history as I am more beautician than historian, but it highlights the key chronology of body painting as an art form.

         Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours. As the first instances of the use of painting materials (ochre, manganese dioxide) by human ancestors predates the first cave paintings by tens or possibly hundred of thousands of years, some scholars assume that the painting materials were used by human ancestors for painting their own bodies.

Ritual Body Art

     Body painting with clay and other natural pigments existed in most, if not all, tribalist cultures. Often worn during ceremonies, it still survives in this ancient form among the indigenous people of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands and parts of Africa. In these ritual art forms we find body painting, tattoos, piercing, nose-ears-mouth plugs, Mehndi, henna and scarification. The place of body art forms in these old 

cultures is very important.

It is a part of their social and spiritual life and is a main element in the important moments of the human life: Rite of passage ( Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as other milestones within puberty, coming of age, marriage and death.)

It can represent:

• your origin, your position, symbol of power, what you have reached and experienced, it can be like an ID card (Maori and Polynisia), it protects from evil forces, it shows bravery and beauty, can be an act of transformation, mourning, connecting with the spirits of animals or the earth, or a symbol of fertility. In the last 100 years in some countries like Japan it has been also connected with the mafia and crime.

Birth of a new art form

                                                                                                                      

 Sally Rand,1933

 There's been a revival of body painting in Western society since the 1960s, in part prompted by the liberalization of social mores regarding nudity and often comes in  exhibitionist forms. Even today there is a constant debate about the legitimacy of body painting as an art form. The current modern revival could be said to date back to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago when Max Factor, Sr. and his model, burlesque performer and actress, Sally Rand were arrested for causing a public disturbance when he body-painted her with his new make-up formulated for Hollywood films.

        Body painting led to a minor alternative art movement in the 1950s and 1960s, which involved covering a model in paint and then having the model touch or roll on a canvas or other medium to transfer the paint. French artist Yves Klein is perhaps the most famous for this, with his series of paintings "Anthropometries". The effect produced by this technique creates an image-transfer from the model's body to the medium. This includes all the curves of the model's body (typically female) being reflected in the outline of the image.

"Anthropometries" by Yves Klein

      In the time around 1960, artists were searching for new ways of expression, new forms of painting, provoking and shocking. They wanted attention and they had a message

•                                                    The work of the Actionists developed with, but largely independently from, other avant garde movements of the era who shared an interest in rejecting object-based or otherwise commodifiable art practices.

• In these times body art performances and body painting are in one hand inspired by Fluxus and Happenig movements, where it is all about the moment of creating, sexual freedom and not the final result of the art work.  

• On another hand other artists like Verushka were creating beautiful images where the body melted with nature,became a part of the environment. The 1960s supermodel Veruschka is often cited as being many body painters' muse. Her images in the book Transfigurations with photographer Holger Trulzsch have frequently been emulated.

photos from Transfigurations by Holger Trulzsch and Vera Lehndorff

One of the main body art movements in this period was in Austria:

The term Viennese Actionism describes a short and violent movement in 20th century art that can be regarded as part of the many independent efforts of the 1960s to develop "action art".

The Pillow Book, a 1996 film by Peter Greenaway, centers around body painting

Contemporary Body Painting

Pink Floyd by Storm Thorgorsen

Contemporary body painting (after 1980) can include but is not limited to:

• Fine art body painting
• Advertising
• Fashion body painting
• Commercial body painting
• UV body painting
• Special Effects
• Airbrush
• Competition body painting
• Action painting
• Body painting shows and performances

 The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, published annually, has in recent years featured a section of models that were body painted, attired in renditions of swimsuits or sports jerseys. 

In 2006 the first gallery dedicated exclusively to fine art body painting was opened in New Orleans by World Body painting Festival Champion and Judge, Craig Tracy. The Painted Alive Gallery is on Royal Street in the French Quarter.

In 2009, late night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on NBC network, featured a New York-based artist Danny Setiawan who creates reproductions of masterpieces by famous artists such as Salvador Dalí, Vincent van Gogh, and Gustav Klimt on human bodies aiming to make fine art appealing for his contemporaries who normally would not consider themselves as art enthusiasts.

Also in 2009, New Zealand national airline Air New Zealand created a television commercial and a safety video, featuring airline staff (even CEO Rob Fyfe) wearing body-painted uniforms. It was part of the company's "Nothing to Hide" campaign, to promote its difference from low-cost airlines with its fully inclusive fares.

In 2010 Delta Faucet brand released a national commercial featuring men that are body painted to look like they are wearing clothing, and then using their new shower head, they rinse the "clothing" off.

Gotye's song feat. Kimbra "Somebody That I Used To Know" was a major hit in 2011 and the music video featured quite a showcase of body painting. 

      Body painters work frequently in the film arena especially in science fiction with more and more elaborate alien creations being body painted. Stills advertising also used body painting with hundreds of body painting looks on the pages of the world's magazines every year. With the continued success of body painting, this has led to publications on this art form and also Illusion Magazine which is aimed to painters for all abilities, showcasing work around the world.

Storm Trooper by Jasmin Keyes for Eyes On You Tampa

Body painting has evolved immensely as an art form since its origins and continues to grow more popular and prevelant every year. There is no doubt that body painting will remain a solid staple in human culture, and an ever progressing, unique art form. It is one of my favorite creative outlets, and another level of make up artistry that I am increasingly passionate about.

If you do attempt to experiment with body painting on your own at home, please, please do yourself a favor and make sure you ONLY use paints that are non-toxic, and specifically designed to be used on the skin.

Hope you enjoyed this journey through body painting's highlights and history and please feel free to leave any comments or questions you may have below :)

Happy November and may you always find your life beauty-full!

XOXO- Bombshell Beauty

For Body Painting Booking info you can visit Eyes On You Tampa or call (727)-698-1753

What is Beauty-full? Scars of the Summer: My most personal post

            How I survived a near fatal crash that not only changed the way I view life, but also myself.

                  It's been quite awhile since my last post and many things have happened that made me question whether or not I would even continue with this blog. I not only missed this forum in my life but the inspiration it has given my own life and hopefully some of yours. I have never gotten this personal here before but for me to continue and start again I must speak my truth and expose a little about me. 

           At the beginning of the summer I was hit head on by a man going the wrong way down the highway at 60 mph. I was then struck by another car from behind, then hit a wall. I was cut out of my vehicle and rushed to the hospital. I do not have any recollection of this happening. What I do remember is fading in and out of consciousness in the ICU as a tube was being sewn into my collapsed lung, looking down at my gaping open, bleeding arm and seeing my tendon move then blackness...nothing for quite awhile. 

          I woke up out of surgery. I had broken my left toe, crushed my right thigh; which later became a 2nd hospital stay for cellulitis, broke 3 ribs which punctured and collapsed my lung, my right arm looked like someone had taken a knife to it with huge open lacerations and glass embedded everywhere, there were about 35 staples and stitches holding me together. My left arm was crushed:the top of the ulna bone broken, the radius shattered and the joint that holds them together broke apart. I had reconstructive surgery with a plate, pins and 30 staples to save my wrist. My chest was black from the impact of the airbag, I had a long laceration across my chest, and glass on/in my neck and scalp....
but I was alive.

          Recovery has been long and hard (and its not over) and has caused me to examine life, myself, the body, beauty, health, the universe and every particle floating around me at this very moment on a deeper and very realistic level. We are fragile beings. People have a tendency to believe that we are human bodies having a spiritual experience when in reality we are spirits having a human experience in a body. We are only passing thru. When I was faced with my own mortality I was forever changed, however, tho I may have been poised to re-prioritize my life, soak in my loved ones and be grateful for the second chance I was given I had my moments of self pity, self doubt, and even vanity out of trauma.

           Besides the immense pain and inability to move, there were things I never expected to affect me. I couldn't hold my daughter. My mother had to bathe and dress me. I couldn't shave any part of my body at all for weeks and weeks, I couldn't do my hair and had to wear bandannas, I couldn't even wear a bra for the longest time. Going out into public for follow up doctor's appointments was a humbling experience.

     My left arm would never look the same, it would never match the right or look like the hand/arm I have always known. I didn't even know what had been done to it or how it looked for 6 weeks. I saw the x-rays first and was flabbergasted and when the post surgical cast came off for the first time in my surgeon's office I broke down and sobbed. I felt disfigured, mangled...I couldn't believe that it was truly my arm I was staring down at. The incision looked like a zipper with all the staples ripping straight thru my beloved wrist tattoos. When the staples came out of that incision I had another meltdown. That was not my arm!! 

     The trauma of what I felt was my disfigured arm was the biggest trigger in regards to my injuries. I never thought I would bend my wrist again, move my thumb even. It not only injured me but it bruised my vanity, at a certain point I had to tell myself that an altered (my word of choice) arm is so much better than no arm at all. I used to call it my bad or gnarly arm and now it is known as my bionic arm. I had a full on titanium plate as part of my bone forever now. Ironically, the hit song "Titanium" was big this summer and I took it on as my own personal anthem! I became fascinated that it was even possible to reconstruct my arm the way they did, I even had my surgeon doodle me what happened and what he had done in surgery (which he found quite amusing). If this had happened to me in another era I would've died and that was incredible. 

      The point is something that what I once saw as ugly and disfigured began to empower me-it became my strength in one of many proofs that I faced death and chose to fight my way back. My favorite scar is the keloid scar on the side of my ribs where the chest tube had been, it makes me feel like a warrior. It reminds me that life is fragile, but that I am stronger than I think and can overcome anything that does not kill me. It also reminds me that strength is sexy and beautiful is relative.

     As I write this I still have shards of glass embedded in my arm, and will someday get a half sleeve tattoo to honor my bionic arm and lay closure to any feelings of trauma. Your hardest moments can be your  most solid ground to stand on because they cause you to grow, to expand. The body can achieve what the mind can perceive and scars are proof of life. It feels good to be coming back into my own and to share my voice with you all once again.

Find the beauty in your own imperfections and the exquisite in what you perceive as flaws. 

Life is beauty-full and so are all of you!!

XoXo-Bombshell Beauty

My best friend has set up a website that I will link this to soon and if you'd like to help in anyway there is a pay-pal donation account where you can donate to help with my recovery.

"Shoot me down, but I won't fall...I am Titanium!"