Body Art

Body art is very broad term which includes ear piercing to a funky painting or you can say everything related to skin decoration. Today there is a craze among college students especially to get a funky Painting done. Having a body art done is a means to express themselves and their individuality.

Besides piercing and body painting is growing in popularity as a body art form. Body art painting treats human body as a blank canvas, and beautiful crafty colorful pictures are drawn on it. Although this artistry may not be your drawing room’s show case they are still splendid.

These days companies have employed a new marketing funda of using body painting as a form of advertising. Many advertisements showcase the models with company logos painted onto their bodies.

Be it a sports day at school or cricket match in the country or going in discs beautiful body art, or painting is apparent. Fans many times express their love and compassion for their favorite team by painting the team mascot or writing their favorite team’s name.

Painting asthe popular body art

Painting are very old art, anciently practiced as marking to identify animals or some convicts and also as permanent ornaments to decorate the body. The word Painting is actually derived from a Tahitian word “Tatau.” The regularly growing passion Painting differ in patterns between males and females. Where males prefer tribal, skull, scorpion patterns, females go for angel, sun, moon patterns.

Painting may be permanent or temporary. Heena or mehandi, sticker Painting or that drawn from water colors is temporary Painting. Permanent Painting are much painful and costly too. Inspite of pain involved Painting has been practiced by modern as well as tribes across the world. The procedure of making Painting too sports a wide variety; in some cultures Painting are formed from scaring and rubbing it with ashes or charring while pricking with thorns to insert dyes in others.

Uses of Painting

1. Decorative and spiritual uses of Painting involve symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, mark of fertility, amulets and talismans for protection.
2. Now-a-days people choose to be Painting for cosmetic and sentimental purposes. Extensive decorative Painting is common for traditional freak shows and by performers who follow in their tradition.
3. Painting are a marking that gives an idea about status and rank of an individual.
4. The Painting were carved out for identification of inmates by Nazis. Sometime a Painting can be useful for forensic pathologists as they might help identify burned or mutilated bodies.
5. These days for the cosmetic purpose Painting are marked as permanent eyebrows, lips liner or lipstick, eye liner and even moles.
6. A new application of Painting is ‘Medical Painting.’ Painting are used for in repeated radiotherapy and for breast reconstruction.

Method of Painting
Modern days Painting parlors mushrooming in cities uses the electric Painting machine which has an oscillating unit that has a mount of group of needles. These needles dipped in Azo- or Acri- dyes goes in and out of the skin around 80-150 times resulting into a gorgeous Painting.

So, be sure to do some research and think about the pains before GAIN….

Body Paint and Bibles

I love traveling, not the fact of going somewhere else, but the action of traveling from one place to another. My fascination is of being anonymous, and of course the time spent “people watching”. This is often done alone, which I think is more entertaining as you are not distracted from the serious business of observing.

Two journeys this year, one to the UK and one day trip to Barcelona.

The UK bound trip started with the normal commotion I always achieve at airports. This is caused by the habit of wearing as much as I can to avoid carrying it or more to the point paying the dreaded extortionate fees “excess baggage” what an awful term…nothing I carry is excess to my needs! So off go the alarms, I could offer my services to test their equipment because no matter what I remove I always set the systems blaring. After the “pat down” with nothing found to attribute to the noise I always hear myself apologise! With the current state of the world I am not complaining about these security measures I just would like to get through, just once, without this hullabaloo!

Then homeward bound, the UK airport tempted me with Marks and Spencer food outlet just before you go through customs control. Great idea, buy lunch, and a few presents to bring back, a thought of what you are allowed to have in hand luggage I avoided drinks but settle on a sandwich, fruit, biscuits etc plus cheeses and chutneys for friends. So I discover this is a ploy by airport staff to get free lunches, they confiscated the lot. Nowhere could I see on the list of banned items M&S lunch! I wanted to say “stop let me back over the barrier and I will eat it first” but the fear of not being let through to travel was greater than hunger.

The day trip to Barcelona was just as eventful for different reasons. An unscheduled change of trains half way meant a different set of traveling companions. Sitting ourselves by the door, with an empty seat in front and two to the side, the carriage was almost full. Then, three young, smartly dressed men boarded, taking up the only empty seats. The first oddness I noticed they all wore the same jackets and had name badges so without further thought I assumed they were security or police. Then I saw the bibles they all started to read as we started out of the station. With an hours non stop journey to Barcelona in a full carriage, we start to realize that our traveling companions had a mission or should I say, they were missionaries. Within minutes they struck up conversation with us.

Caught off guard, but fascinated to understand why these three young American men were in Spain. To counter their obvious objective to discuss The Lord, we asked them many questions on their background, my friend and I taking it in turn to question them. The first thought that ran through my head was the “good cop bad cop” ploy we naturally adopted. The friend was gentle in the questioning I was not so! Why was I allowing myself to be drawn into this exchange? Not wanting my religious believes to be questioned or was I feeling confronted?

With the journey over, ahead of us the serious task of shopping. We starting walking from the station in the crowds of city folks going about their business. I could not believe what I saw next, as nobody else seemed to notice, I began to wonder if my eyes deceived me. “Did you see that”? “Was he wearing anything”? Not a pretty sight, just a man with clothes painted on his naked body. To add to the amusing spectacle…not a head was turned. Just like the earlier time in the train carriage I felt the day was going to be different, and it certainly was!

Maybe that is the reason I love traveling, you cannot control what you may encounter only how you react to it.

Helen Rowe is the Overseas Marketing and Sales Consultant for Immobiliaria Rieres, Tortosa, Spain