Body Painting

Body paint must be used with caution. When using body paint, less is better than more. Certain types of body paint do not "breathe," so you can wind up in the emergency room. When using body paint, do not paint these areas:

Underarms.
Small of the back.
Back of the neck.
Groin.

A letter from Richard A. Hill helps explain why.

Esteemed Gentlebeings:

It's not the air or lack of same, it is the lack of heat exchange. If you cannot excrete heat, you warm up to about 110 degrees and then eventually will cool down to room temperature. For good.

The older water/alcohol based paints will smear/dissolve/run in sweat. The newer acrylic and polymeric body paints actually "pore" and do not smear with sweat, but do require an organic component, soap or alcohol, to remove them.

One thin coat of oil- and grease-based makeup can but seldom does, seal the pores badly enough to be dangerous, but you'll feel some heat after a while. You might stabilize at 102 degrees and be sick as hell the next day, assuming you stay in full body makeup for over 14 hrs or so. The danger is in multiple coats of sealing compounds, brushed latex, oil or grease, without leaving the major heat exchange/sweat areas (underarms, small of back, head and groin) free to "breathe" - read with pores able to sweat and skin able to radiate heat.

I've only known three people first hand who were unlucky (2) or stupid (1) enough to apply 2-3 coats of oil based makeup to their entire bodies and wear it for hours until passing out and being hospitalized. All survived with no worse damage than abraded skin in the areas that were initially "scraped" clean in the ER.

Two were merely unlucky as they never knew. One was stupid as he did know but also "knew" that staying in front of a fan would cool him off. No exposed skin, no open pores, no sweat, no evaporation, so, of course, he didn't cool off.

We don't breathe like frogs, but neither do we excrete heat like dogs.

Covering Up

Suggestions for covering up unpainted areas include:

Wearing a body leotard if your costume will allow it. You can paint the leotard with fabric paint and then minimize the area that you have to body paint.
The neck area can be covered by jewelry, a cape, or a sword belt draped across the back.
The small of the back can be covered up by a cape, a wide belt, or the top of a bottom garment.
The armpits are harder to do. For warrior costumes, sometimes a bit of armor can be worn over the shoulder. If you must do paint there, please promise not to wear it for more than four hours. OK?

If you have any further information to share about this topic, please e-mail Carole Parker for inclusion.