Body Art Painting - Tattoos No Longer Taboo

Body Art Painting - Tattoos No Longer Taboo

It was not too long ago that tattoos were considered taboo and were frowned upon by the majority of society. Such entities were only found on bikers, ex-convicts, and miscreants of all forms. However, today body art painting is considered a valid art form and is steadily gaining popularity. The artists have training much like the artists who create on canvas or with clay; the only difference is the medium. Some tattoo artists can recreate masterpieces and portraits on the skin of their clients that could rival Picasso or Da Vinci.

Popular Tattoos - Body Art Designs
Tattoos are a very personal matter. After all, the chosen design is going to be a part of your body for the rest of your life. However, as with most things, there are trends that exist. Many love the tribal tattoos with their flowing lines. The traditional tattoos of anchors and birds are making a comeback. Celtic symbols are now very popular because their meanings are generally common to most races and universal in nature.

Many women tend to get tattooed on their ankles, wrists, and lower back; this is where the curves are! Men will generally prefer it on their fore arms, biceps, and upper back.

Body Art Painting
Unlike tattoos, body art is temporary and painted onto the skin. It can last for a few hours or up to a few weeks. It is said that body painting is one of the most ancient art forms. Now, body painting is quite popular in both amateur and commercial arenas, and not all "pieces" involve nudity. Many body artists will include small designs on one area of the body. There are numerous festivals held each year in New York and New Mexico where thousands flock to see the vibrantly coloured participants. The modern revival of body art painting can be dated back to the 1950's when artists would cover a model's body in paint (typically female) and have her roll on a canvas to transfer the paint. The results were intriguing - all the curves of the female body in either monotone or mixed coloring.

How to Paint a Guitar Body

How to Paint a Guitar Body

There are many ways to paint a guitar body, some are simple, some are multi-staged and hard to follow. I'm going to try to keep this tutorial simple and hopefully you will be able to paint your guitar body without wanting to kill me.

The truth is you should not expect your first guitar painting job to be any good. You might have to do it a few times before you get to the stage where you have the confidence to paint the body of a guitar you really treasure.

You can buy aerosol cans of paint for car bodies that will do the job on your guitar or you can buy guitar paint in cans that will duplicate your popular Fender or Gibson colors. You will do well to get a face mask and goggles unless you plan on your lungs and eyeballs matching your guitar. The alternative to cans is a spray gun in which case you will get a better finish that needs less sanding.

Wherever you choose to do your painting, make sure you remove the neck and hang your guitar from a taut wire so that you can walk around it concentrating on spraying without having to stop and move the guitar.

For more information and more tutorials in painting your guitar body, you must visit The Guitar ReRanch website. This is the place to go if you need some more info on whatever stage of repainting you are at.

Your guitar will already have a coat of lacquer on it and this must be removed totally before you can begin to add a new coat of paint. There are lots of chemicals that will strip the paint off your guitar, many of which will have no hesitation in killing you if you go near them with your mouth open. Get advice on which lacquer removal product is best to start with on your particular guitar.

If you have experience in painting, which I hope you have, you know the kind of surface you need to get down to. The guitar, if it is getting a complete repaint, should be a nice sanded down palette waiting for your artistic interventions. Any holes and dents should be filled.

The final coat of paint for your guitar body will look as good as the layers of primer beneath it. You took great care on your sanding and now you need to do a careful priming job. Now you can give your primed guitar a nice light sanding. Your surface should be smooth. At this stage, if you are a beginner to this kind of work, you will be starting to want the job to hurry up and get finished. Don't be tempted to rush. If you are sick and tired of all the effort, take a day off.

Keep applying coats of paint till you are happy with the color you have achieved. This means maybe six coats. Then a clear coat of lacquer. Hang the guitar up to dry for a month so that the lacquer is hardened.

Body Painting: Henna Tattoo

Body Painting: Henna Tattoo

Henna tattoos are an ancient custom in India: girls and women are body painted before ceremonies, like marriage. They painted complicated patterns on their hands and feet to symbolize their fertility.

Henna (or 'Mehndi', the Indian name) is made from the henna plant (Lawsonia Inermis). The leaves of the plant are dried and ground. The powder gets mixed with water and you get a sort of green-brownish mud. If you put that mud on your skin, let it harden, and then peel it off, you will notice it has left an orange color.

You can get your henna at an eastern shop or a 'souk' in many different colors. There's orange, mahogany, brown and black. The orange one is the traditional henna. The black henna is synthetic. It contains PDD (P-phenylenediamene) and can cause allergic reactions. Even if it doesn't cause irritations, it's still unhealthy. Moreover, in the past, black henna at your wedding was considered a disgrace.

Henna Recipe

With one pack of henna, you'll have enough to body paint the entire football team. Put the henna in a bowl and gently pour some lemon juice and boiling water in the bowl. Don't use too much water, the mud has to resemble the thickness of sate sauce. The purpose of the lemon juice is to help the color hold better on your skin.

Your skin should be clean, dry and not fat. If you want to color your nails too, they shouldn't have nail polish on them. Make sure you really want this, because your nails will be orange for about 2 months. It doesn't come off! When the henna is cold, you can get to painting.

If you want to paint your foot soles, which is a traditional custom in Marokko, make sure you have a pillow of some kind to keep your feet off the floor, before you know it, the henna mud is everywhere! You can apply the henna with all sorts of instruments, what works best is a syringe (without the needle of course).

Symmetric and geometric shapes work best. Don't make the lines too thin, the color won't come on to your skin very well. The bigger the surface, the brighter the color will be.
Now: the annoying part: Waiting...

Let the henna dry in the sun, the warmth of the sun will get your color deeper into your skin. You can also use a hairdryer.

If you make a mistake in the picture your painting: ACT QUICKLY! If you wipe it off too late, the henna will leave a red spot.

After a while, the henna will start to burst. Don't peel it off yet! The henna has to stay on for at least two hours. Then you can start removing the crusts of mud.

DON'T remove the henna with water! Just scrape the crusts of your skin, you can do this with a bold knife. Don't let your body painting get in touch with water for the first couple of hours. Right after you scraped off all the crusts, rub your skin in with olive oil. It will make the color brighter and help keep the color on as long as possible. Your henna painting will survive for about a month or so.

Also nice to know: Swimming, body peeling, scrubbing your back, and bodyscrub products will make the henna tattoo deteriorate faster.

Body Painting - Nude Female and Male Body Painting

Body Painting - Nude Female and Male Body Painting

Body painting is an art that uses the human body as a canvas. It is a form of painting pictures or spreading colours on human body to look is pleasant to the eyes of the viewers. It is an artistic application of exotic colours over the parts of body. No part is now a day safe from body painting! But the most of the work is done on the face.

When a person desire to show his or her desires on his or her face, he or she approaches a professional body painter. These painters paint and draw figures on face. Among young boys and girls, such face painting is in vogue when attending a party of a celebration. Festivals are preferred places for the body painters.

The History: In fact the human race as a whole is very fond of painting the bodies. This form of art is beloved to be a prehistoric one. In past we were used to paint our bodies with materials like natural dyes, paints and pigments. In some cases we use ash, vegetable colours and clay, too.

The Beliefs: It is believed that the paintings that we do make on our bodies have some extra sensual powers. Some of these paintings are thought to have magical powers with which one could ward off evil spirits or the tribal enemies. Such was thinking many races in past. However today, the painting of bodies is coined with celebration of auspicious occasions like New Year or a dance party. Same practices are prevailing in the indigenous populations of the countries like New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and certain parts of Africa.

Henna - An Alternative of Body Painting

Henna - An Alternative of Body Painting

For many years, tattoo and piercing have become two popular ways of body painting. Although many people like these, they actually do hurt, so we must be totally ready to do this. Now, there is a new popular way of body painting. It is favored because it creates a beautiful look to our body without giving such a pain. This way is called henna.

If you like watching Indian movies, you will see it painted on women's hands, especially in wedding scenes. Those films might be the ones which spread the popularity of henna to all over the world. Actually, henna plants have been used for thousand years for medicines, cosmetics, and hair colorings. They can be used as an anti-fungal and a preservative for cloth and leather. The flowers are used for perfumes.

Henna plant grows in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, Northern Australasia, and Southern Asia, such as India, Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Libya, and Sudan. Each region grows a different variety of henna. The powder is made of the leaves. Each plant has its own characteristic, so it influences the colors.

If you believe that henna is black, you are wrong. The pure black color is not the natural color. The pure and natural ones are khaki, dark green, and brown. When being applied to skin, they can produce some colors range from orange to red, to black cherry, and near black color. Some factories usually blend different types of henna taken from different parts of a country or even from different countries to get perfect colors.

You can apply henna on your hands, legs, and arms. For simple designs, you only need to prepare 10 to 15 minutes. For the complex ones, several hours are needed to get the best result. After the painting process, dab it with a lemon-sugar solution in order to preserve the paste. How long the painting will last depends on the quality of the paste and individual skin type. The best quality ones can last up to a month.

Body Painting - A Look at the Top 6 Festivals in the World

Body Painting - A Look at the Top 6 Festivals in the World

Dragonmen, Alien Mermaids, Fantastic Fire Dancers, Barebacked Santas, and even a Painted Labrador Retriever; you can see all these and more at the fantastic body painting festivals now occurring annually around the world.

There is a wide range of body painting festivals today. All include painted bodies, of course, and all include some kind of competitions; however there is a quite a range of skills and size among the different festivals, and some are more 'family friendly' than others.

Here's a quick look at the top 6 body painting festivals, where they happen and what you can expect to find there:

1. The World Body Painting Festival

This festival includes some of the most stunning professional body painting to be seen in the world today. A 3 day program includes dance, music and fireworks displays, as well as many competitions. Many of the body paintings here should fall under the category of 'fine art' with some of the dancers body paintings simply defying belief. A very large event and certainly worth traveling for.

Where: Seeboden, Austria
Duration: Three days
Events Include: World Championships in 3 categories; night contest for UV effects, Special Effects awards; classes and workshops; BodyCircus (fantasy ball); music and dance performances; an international photo contest; and a huge fireworks show.
Artistic Range: One of the very best, with stunning range of styles and surprising themes.
Family Friendliness: Not clear, but it is in Europe, so not likely to ban under 18. However this body painting festival does not advertise itself as family friendly, as some others do.

2. The Canadian Body Painting Festival

This is another body painting festival that showcases simply stunning artists and finished work. The quality of the art here is similar to that seen at the World Body Painting Festival. The Festival is themed from year to year, with the recent theme being "It's A Jungle Out There." Also includes the Canadian Body Painting Championships.

Where: Nanaimo, British Columbia
Duration: Two days
Events Include: Competitions in overall body painting, brush and sponge, and airbrush; includes the Canadian body painting Championships
Artistic Range: Most stunning, and one of the best overall. Very life-like and fantastic double-take images.
Family Friendliness: Not stated - would be worth making a call first.

3. The International Body Painting Festival

This festival takes place in Mainz, a city with over two thousand years of history. It is located on the river Rhine, has strong Celtic roots and may have been founded by the Romans as early as 13 BC. One can imagine that body painting has a long history here, if you remember the Celtic tradition of painting their bodies before going into battle. Once again, the artistic ability and range is stunning at this International festival.

Where: Mainz, Germany
Duration: Weekend festival
Events Include: Competitions include special effects and face painting
Artistic Range: Very stunning; high artistic skill.
Family Friendliness: Not known but again, it's in Europe. I would call ahead.

4. Welsh International Body Painting Festival
This festival is a bit younger and less established than the top 3, although it has some impressive artwork considering that they are just getting started. Also the atmosphere is more 'fun' orinted, less 'high art' and family participation is strongly encouraged. A good festival to consider if you want to make it a family outing and see some amazing work in the process.
Where: Wales (of course)
Duration: Two days
Events Include: Hands on demonstrations; horror specialists and flower specialists
Artistic Range: High, and impressive for a smaller sized event; not as subtle or creative as some of the others
Family Friendliness: Very good; in fact they encourage families and camping, with an 'all ages' atmosphere and events designed for younger participants

5. The UK Body Painting Festival

This festival showcases some of the least impressive - although most amusing - body painting, although it should be said that it is not presented as a stuffy 'high art' affair, but more a circus or county fair type outing for the entire family. Fun, relaxed and un-selfconscious atmosphere allows for some of the more surprising and purely 'fun' body art to be seen. If you're not a supermodel and would like to get your body painted without worrying about snide comments, this might be a good option for you.

Where: Ashford, UK
Duration: Two days
Events Include: Family-oriented face painting, body painting competitions for professional and amateur categories, craft fair, children's activities, workshops, and a 'bouncy castle.'
Artistic Range: Fair; more of a family outing with a lots to do than a showcase of spectacular art.
Family Friendliness: Very high; advertised as family event. Lowest cost of all the body painting festivals - comparable to a movie ticket.

6. The US Bodypainting Festival (or New Mexico Body Painting Festival/US Bodypainting Competition)

There is definitely some impressive body painting to be seen at this festival, and a lot of creative innovation with hair and unusual designs that you won't see anywhere else. One example that springs to mind is a model dressed in racecar theme with red, white and blue hair sprayed out behind her as though flying in the wind. Also, if you're in the US this festival obviously doesn't require a plane ticket. However this is not a family outing, as it explicitly bans anyone under 18.

Where: Alberquerque, New Mexico
Duration: Three days
Events Include: Demonstrations, workshops, competitions in body painting
Artistic Range: Good to poor - there is a mix of very impressive artistic works and things better left unpainted here; although it's all 'interesting.'
Family Friendliness: Not at all. We are in the US remember; no one under 18 allowed.

So that's my brief overview of the top 6 body painting festivals in the world. Would you like to take a vacation this year that's not your ordinary 'hum-drum' trip? Pick one of these festivals and you can pack light (you know, you could just bring a can of paint and a paintbrush for evening wear)!

Body Painting Art - Nude Female and Male Body Painting

Body Painting Art - Nude Female and Male Body Painting

In fact we are fond of painting our bodies since prehistoric times. In past we were used to paint our bodies with materials like natural dyes, paints and pigments. In some cases we used ash, and clay, too.

The markings that the people make on their bodies are thought to have magical powers with which one could ward off evil spirits or the tribal enemies. Such was the thinking in past. The painting of bodies was also coined with celebrating of auspicious occasions like New Year or a dance party. Same practice can still observed in the indigenous populations of the countries like New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, and certain parts of Africa.

In India the women and men are fond of using Henna. It is a colour extracted from a plant of Henna; it is also known as Mehandi. This type of body painting with Henna has been a fashion in India and the Middle East since many years. People paint their hands and legs and other parts of body with Henna during auspicious ceremonies like weddings. The use of henna or Mehandi has become popular in the Western countries, too, since last two decades.

The art of body painting is not a new phenomenon in the countries of South America, too. People here have been using indigenous materials to paint their body and body parts. They use wet charcoal and other materials available in the local surrounding. In some parts of America, a material known as Huito is used to paint the bodies and faces. Huito is a black dye, and it takes weeks to fade away.