Miami Body Painting at Little Havana’s Calle Ocho Festival

Body painting front is the flag of Puerto Rico, with glitter on arms and shoulders

Calle Ocho (Spanish for Eighth Street) is the central axis of Miami’s Little Havana community. Located just west of Miami’s downtown, Little Havana is a haven for the many Cubans who left their homeland to escape the tyranny of Castro’s dictatorial click. Now their children and many other Latinos from the Caribbean basin call Miami home. These include the vibrant and emerging émigré communities from Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

On Sunday, March 15, 2009, Little Havana was host to over 50,000 visitors taking in the music, food, art, and dancing of Calle Ocho 2009. Several stages provided venues for a variety of Latin music, including Miami’s talented Salsa bands. As visitors strolled through the sprawling festival site, they encountered stage after stage of musical artists.

On one of those stages, you could see the results of body painting in South Florida. Accompanying this article is a photograph of one of the participants who danced on stage. You’ll see her front is the flag of Puerto Rico. To ensure that the tolerant atmosphere was not tested too much, her nipples were covered with an adhesive tape and paint was then applied on top. The result is a seamless look that fools the eye. Many people encountering our subject would be surprised to learn that she is clad only in body paint from the waste up.

Body Painting by Flick uses non-toxic paints that are compatible with the human skin. Further, BPBF has a unique additive (that’s safe and can even be eaten) that provides a temporary and advanced bonding of the paint to the skin. No other bodypainter offers this. The result is a shinier finish without any flaking of the paint. This particular paint is water-based and will wash off without delay in the shower, revealing smooth, healthy skin.

One last point. The paint applied by BPBF will last for more than 24 hours. In fact our subject reported that she elected to keep her last body painting for three days. She carefully washed daily around the art work. This allowed her to maximize her body painting and attend a steady stream of parties and events where she became the center of attention. At the end of her three painted days in January, she jumped into the shower and removed the paint immediately.

If you are seeking to be body painted or have an event requiring body painting performance art, you may contact Carl Flick of Body Painting by Flick at 561-844-2223. Visit BPBF’s web site at: http://carlflick.com/bodypainting .