Painting the body with washable colours — water-based paint, special makeup, occasionally an airbrush. The shoot runs like any other modelling job, but it is much longer: the design takes hours to apply.
What the day looks like
First three to five hours standing: the artist works in layers and each layer has to dry. Then the shoot, usually short, because the paint does not last. Then removal, which also needs time and warm water.
Paint dries and tightens the skin, sitting in it is uncomfortable, and you cannot lean against anything. Breaks are planned in advance — standing for five hours without one is not possible, and saying so is not being difficult.
What to establish before the shoot
What is being applied and what removes it, and whether there is somewhere to wash: a shower on location is not a given, and travelling home covered in paint is not an option. Whether a patch test was done and when. How many people will be on set and who they are.
Separately, the temperature of the room: you will be working with almost nothing on for many hours, and a cold studio turns the day into an ordeal.
Where the line is
The degree of nudity and the intended use of the images are agreed in writing. With body art, the boundary between an art shoot and a nude shoot runs through the agreement, not through assumption: paint counts as clothing neither on set nor on the platforms the pictures end up on.
What belongs in the paperwork — «Releases and Agreements: The Minimum Paper Kit».
About pay
Counted on the whole time, not the shooting time: eight hours on set is eight hours of work, even if forty minutes of it were photographed. Agree the rate in those terms beforehand.
