Body painting is an art that uses the human body as a canvas. It can be used to create art or simply to decorate the body, and it is also a form of cosmetics, sometimes in conjunction with clothes. Many cultures all over the world have practiced body painting for different reasons, including artistic and religious reasons. The human body is considered an ideal canvas for painters to exhibit their artistic skills. If you take a closer look at some paintings, you may see that every stroke has some meanings behind it. Therefore, great body painting ideas are always needed to create a masterpiece.
In case this is your first time searching for body painting ideas, you may get confused in choosing the best one. Let’s take a look at the article below for the best body painting art ideas, which might be suitable for you.
From the simple body paintings for beginners and aesthetic body arts for couples, to amazing and attractive full body painting for photoshoot ideas, we have no doubt that you will find all of the insightful ideas right here. So, let’s get started!
BEST Body Painting Ideas
1. Old Woman Skeleton Body Painting
If you are looking for creepy body painting ideas for women, then the skeleton theme will never go wrong. Simply use white and black stick body paint to create a skeleton illusion in your face and body. Moreover, you may want to complete the look with a simple black lace coat to add the scary look to your appearance.
Lastly, don’t forget to dye your hair with silver or gray color, which will give an old lady vibe.
2. Splash Colors Body Paint
Inspired by abstract paintings, you may create a masterpiece in your body, such as this next idea. As a start, use white body paint for the base. To make a fantastic splash color, you can combine blue, green, yellow and a little red dots all over your body.
Then, let your face half painted, which will be showing that you are having fun playing with color splash. In our opinion, it will be one of the most fun body painting ideas for beginners who don’t have a solid design.
3. Galaxy Men Body Art
Glowing body painting art is the ideal concept for guys to make them stand out among the crowd. Take this one for instance. This galaxy theme for body painting suit idea will look amazing with the UV body crayon.
As for the UV body crayon, you can apply the UV crayon to give a fantastic glowing effect. Do remember that the paint will glow more if it is applied thicker. As a result, you will be able to see that it looks bold and bright during the day and becomes more dramatic under black lights, producing a striking UV glow.
4. Clown Face and Body Paint
If you want to look both cute and creepy at the same time, then clown body painting ideas might suit you best. To create the look, you may need white body paint as the base. Use pink and fantasy green body paint to color your eyes and then make alternating patterns to your body.
As the last touch, finish the full body painting with black color to border the color, and create the iconic clown eye makeup.
5. Tiger Man Body Art
Impress your guests with a scary but esthetic tiger man body art. Personally, we think that this is one of the best body painting ideas for guys who love the tiger persona. To make a fantastic visual, use blue, white, green, and yellow paint for the base.
In addition, you can use black paint to draw the tiger pattern at your face and also at the back. Lastly, add an elegant pattern that blends well with the tiger, covering the whole body.
6. Unicorn Fantasy Body Paint
Show your beauty and cuteness at the same time in the unicorn theme body paint ideas. Challenge yourself to paint your full body with pink liquid paint. Draw a cute unicorn in the chest part, align with rainbow, flowers, and stars pattern to make a magical and fantasy vibe.
Moreover, you may want to put a flower crown for the head decoration to complete the final look.
7. Koi Fish Body Art
Koi fish are symbols of love and friendship. Therefore, why not show your admiration to them with Koi fish theme body painting idea?
You can start the blue body paint for the base, resembling the water for koi fish pond. Then, you can continue with the neck to chest part to draw some koi fish in orange, black, and white using oil face body paint. Lastly, draw some lotus flowers and stones from face to all over the body, which will create a realistic view of the fishpond.
8. Steampunk Body Paint
This is one of the most masculine body painting ideas for guys to expose their athletic body. You can use steampunk theme, which will create retro futuristic technology and aesthetic visuals all over your body.
However, we have to remind you that this full body painting requires advanced painting skills, as you should draw steam-powered machinery from head to toe. In addition, you can paint a slim fit vest and white gloves to expose your muscles and complete the look.
9. Glow Under Black Light Maternity Body Paint
Give a significant body painting during your maternity with the glow under black light concept. This is one of the most genius maternity photoshoot ideas as you paint a life of wonderful forest all over the body. The beautiful forest scenery resembles a new life that will come soon. For a stunning effect, you can use the neon blacklight UV paint to draw the fantastic view.
10. Rolling Stone Girl Body Paint
Dress in your body painting idea will be a charming way to expose your full body. Use your creativity to paint a rolling stone white crop top and the ripped short denim jeans.
You can wear metal bracelets to make a rock vibe, too. Then, style your hair in a messy look, which will instantly make you appear hot and look like a badass. In pur opinion, it will be one of the best photoshoot ideas for women.
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11. African Maternity Body Paint
Expose your exotic skin with African pattern body painting ideas. Especially if you are looking for maternity photoshoot ideas, the concept will definitely be suitable for couples. Paint the man’s faces and bodies in white because it will establish a mystical connection between his and the ancestors.
Meanwhile, the woman can use black color in a similar pattern as it denotes power.
12. Abstract Color Couple Body Paint
Love is colorful. Therefore, why not show your romantic side with colors that resemble your love? We do think that the abstract color body painting idea will be a great way to express it.
To start with, you will need a large white background, colorful paints, and of course your body. Try to splash and play with the colorful paints to make an attractive abstract look both in your body and the white background.
13. Night Butterfly Body Art
This is definitely a piece of art! You can put butterfly body art on your back for an elegant look. A butterfly that symbolizes hope and transformation will be an amazing body paint idea with a beautiful meaning.
Use purple and violet body paint to color the butterfly, creating a calming night view. We also think that drawing a moon on the side of the butterfly will also add charm to the butterfly visual.
14. Beach Bikini Body Paint
Enhance your style at the beach with the perfect bikini body art. The beach bikini body painting ideas will be a great way to radiate the summer spirit in a sexy way. You can use an oil body paint palette to draw your dream bikini or swimsuit.
In addition, we do think that drawing cute bikini ornaments such as ribbons or belts will be a great idea. Moreover, drawing a few tattoos with the beach team to express your love of the beach will also do. You can put the drawing in the exposed skin such as legs or arms.
15. Starry Night Body Paint
Get a wonderful starry night view in your body at night with the elegant concept. In case you are a fan of Vincent van Gogh’s masterpiece, we have no doubt that you can use your full body as a large canvas to paint.
Pour your creativity and painting skills with the right body paint to make the claw waves for the focal point. Moreover, this is also one of the best body painting ideas for professional painters.
16. Flowers and Skull Full Body Paint
This one is a creepy but playful body painting concept, which allow you to expose your curvy body in an elegant way.
Try to paint a creepy 3D skull that follows your body curves. Draw green eye makeup to add charms to the appearance, and then put some artificial flowers in purple, green, and red to adorn the scary skulls. In our opinion, this is one of the most artistic and sexy body painting ideas for women.
17. Sunset Beach View Body Paint
If you are looking for aesthetic body painting ideas for sunset lovers, then try to paint beach scenery on your back. Back is the most ideal human canvas for back light painting. Try to portray a beautiful sunset view at the beach with palm trees and clouds. Use your painting skills to make color gradation and deep tones.
In addition, you can also use a UV body paint palette with plenty of colors that will glow in the dark.
18. Nature Inspired Full Body Art
Suppose you are looking for an artistic way to show the beauty of nature with full body painting, then we believe that this concept will be a great choice. Use black body paint for the color base, and then draw amazing birds with nature background in the chest to belly part, following with the artistic creatures to the feet. As a final touch, adorn your head with a green vine crown to make the art more lively.
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19. Jungle Body Paint
For those nature enthusiasts, the wonderful concept of forest body paint will suit them well. You don’t need a full body painting to draw the whole forest.
Instead, use your creativity to highlight a bird hiding in the trees and leaves in the body part. Then, paint some leaves in your hands and feet, which will make a perfect jungle view. We have no doubt that it will be one of the most elegant body painting ideas to express your love for nature.
20. Flower Girl Body Art
Get your body a tight hug from your favorite flowers with the charming body art. The idea is to draw all your favorite flowers, turning them into a wonderful pattern.
We believe that all girls who love flowers would love the concept. Use pastel palette colors to paint the flowers for a calming and elegant appearance, and make sure you don’t forget to draw vines and some leaves too, as it will create a great contrast with the pastel tones.
21. Optical Illusions Face and Body Paint
Optical illusions have never failed to wow people with the amazing art and never ending creativity, and we believe this one is a cool example of that.
This body painting includes images of boxes with different images of small body parts like the eyes, ears, or lips, that go through from the face to the body. To steal this look, you can recreate it and make sure the boxes look real and paint the outer part of the boxes in black.
22. Abstract Black and White Body Paint
The combination of black and white is something that will never go out of style, which includes black and white body paint like this one. It’s definitely an art that will create a contemporary artwork to amaze all of the art lovers and enthusiasts out there.
To have this look, first paint your body in all black, and once it’s dry you can create any patterns or shapes you like using a white body paint. You can draw lines like the one in this picture, or you can pick other patterns, too!
23. Robot Body Paint
This robot body paint is definitely something that most body paint lovers would love to have. Because, well.. as you can see, you will look badass in this body paint!
You can have this look for a cool photoshoot, where you can look like a real robot with a solid black background. Moreover, we would suggest you to add some details to create a rustic look to your appearance, too.
24. Beautiful Gold Henna Body Paint
You do know that body painting is not always about scary, badass, or unique looks, right?
Here we have a beautiful option of body paint that you can choose for a special occasion like a wedding or engagement party. In order to have this look, you will need to use gold henna and create a beautiful pattern that will look adorable paired with your black or white dress. For best results, you can apply it on your shoulder and down to your arm.
25. Colorful Mosaic Body Paint
This one is definitely a unique body painting idea that you can have, because we believe that it features a beautiful mosaic pattern in beautiful colors.
You can apply it on your body and also face, and combine beautiful colors that include blue, red, orange, yellow, and also green. To make it look even more adorable on your body, you can also create some shapes like round, leaf or flower shapes, and then play with colors, combine them, and create a stunning result.
Final Thoughts
The perfect body painting ideas would be those that can represent your personality and character the best way possible. If you are a lover of monochrome art and color tone, then you must go for body painting ideas that come in black and white, plus a stunning pattern to make you stand out in the crowd.
On the other hand, colorful body painting ideas would be perfect for those who are more cheerful with fun upbringing. However, since art is free, you can always choose to have something different, too! So free your mind and creativity and get the best ideas of body paintings on our list!
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FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
What type of paint do you use for body painting?
Pick alcohol-based paints for long-lasting results. Choose water-activated body paints for their ease of application and removal. Cosmetic grade paint is always the best paint for body painting. Never use skin care products that weren’t made for it.
What do you need for body painting?
If this is your first time, you need basic tools for body painting: the body paint and the body itself. You may put some lotion or primer on your skin before to make the painting easier. Think about using a primer or toner before painting your body with makeup and setting it with translucent powder. Even adding a base layer before your design might be appropriate for professional face painting.
How do you seal paint on skin?
Whether you’re wearing foundation, concealer, or vibrant face paints, a light layer of oil-free primer will help make your body paint last longer. After painting, set your designs with powder. To make it stay longer, you can also use a makeup-setting spray.
Does body paint stain skin?
It is usually temporary skin staining. While water-activated paints won’t last overnight because of sweat and friction from the sheets removing the majority of the color, alcohol-based body paints can last up to 2-3 days. If you take good care of your glitter tattoos, they can last up to a week.
How do you remove body paint?
First, apply a little oil and rub the spots with a flannel, cotton pad, cotton ball, or makeup removal pad of your choice. The paint is picked up by the oil, and the stains are instantly removed. Wet the paint-covered skin area for additional cleaning.
Apply dish soap and scrub the paint-covered region of skin for a few minutes. Once the paint has been completely removed, clean the area with water and repeat as necessary.
