- published: 23 Dec 2015
- views: 744457
Body painting, or sometimes bodypainting, is a form of body art. Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most (in the case of Mehndi or "henna tattoo") a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting. Body painting is also referred to as (a form of) temporary tattoo; large scale or full-body painting is more commonly referred to as body painting, while smaller or more detailed work is generally referred to as temporary tattoos.
Joseph Jordania recently suggested that body painting, together with dancing, loud group singing, rhythmic stomping and drumming on external objects, was designed by the forces of natural selection as the means to reach the specific altered state of consciousness, battle trance through the ritualized activities. In this state group members were losing their individuality and were assuming a shared collective identity, where they were losing the feel of fear and pain and were fully dedicated to the group interests. This state was crucial for physical survival of the hominids in order to defend them from predators after they shifted from the relatively safe trees to more dangerous ground. As the first instances of the use of painting materials (ochre, manganese dioxide) by human ancestors predates the first cave paintings by tens or possibly hundred of thousands of the years, some scholars assume that the painting materials were used by human ancestors for painting their own bodies.