Highlights from the World Bodypainting festival

More than 300 artists from 50 countries have been participating in the 19th World Bodypainting Festival, which commenced from July 1-3 in the southern Austrian town. Over the past three days 25,000 people visited the fair.The festival witnessed fabulous work by amateur artists, as well as extraordinary face painting masterpieces.

Creative makeup, special effects, brush and sponge, facepainting and airbrushing were the categories in which the models and their artists competed. According to the competition, the artists use the bodies of models as their canvases, and the models then exhibit the finished work for the public and the judges.

Contest rules allow the artists to spend up to six hours perfecting their work on the body of a naked model and the finished creation may also require the talents of one or two makeup artists. The characters depicted may stem from science fiction. Often they also resemble film characters from hits such as “Avatar,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

“The idea began 19 years ago to attract tourism. Only seven artists came the first year,” explained Marlies Wurm-Pontasch, one of the Festival workers to EFE. The first edition is said to have made a big splash in southern Austria, to the point that even the police showed up because there were so many naked people parading around in public.

The living art has been sported by a few Indian celebrities. To break of the rigid barriers was Pooja Bhatt, back in the 90s who grabbed eyeballs as she posed in body paint for Stardust Magazine. Rakhi Sawant was spotted in tiger stripes body paint for PETA, a social cause. International faces like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Demi Moore and Rihanna among others were also seen pulling off body paint for various events and shoots.