Frequently Asked Bodypainting Questions

How long have you been bodypainting?

I have been getting paid by people to do art onto things since I was in High School, which was over twenty years ago now. About ten years ago I returned to Canada after traveling and living overseas for many years.  After I had settled in, I went out and did some some legwork to get some business in and shortly thereafter I began to get the occasional calls for work, which included some facepainting or some bodypainting, but it was not very often. At that time I did not know anything about those artforms compared to what I know now so I could not offer the same quality and style and speed that I can now.  As time passed though I began to get more airbrushed tattooing jobs for parties and events more and more often, which is kinda like bodypainting in a sense, and so it was via my learning process of airbrushing tattoos that I learned how to paint onto a moving person.

Around 2007, I was working for an online magazine on the side and one day my job was to interview XXX legend Ron Jeremy at a huge convention show happening in Toronto called the Everything to do with sex show. At some point during the show I was walking by the bodypainting booth and I saw that they were airbrushing so I stopped by and began chatting the booth owner up. We got along quite well and to my utter surprise the booth owner invited me to come to the next show and do airbrushed tattooing in the booth alongside the crew. This was an offer which I immediately and happily accepted; it was a foot in the door and a golden opportunity and I grabbed it.

I began airbrushing tattoos at the Everything to do with sex shows in different cities and by pure osmosis by being there I learned how bodypainting was done and about the materials used. Eventually I began bodypainting  models and patrons of the show and began to get a lot of practice and experiment time in. It wasn’t long after beginning bodypainting and putting some ads out that I began to get calls from companies such as Converse Shoes for example, who wanted bodypainted models or performers for their events. One job led to another and before I knew it I was bodypainting  more than anything else and loving it and so here I am.