Lets observe different techniques and styles of painting the body, used by societys.

Body painting appeared a long time. Men always painted the body as a cultural habit that comes from the aesthetics, religion, the rituals, festivals to, wars, etc..

The Brazilian Indians, for example, have a specific type of painting to commemorate different events in their tribes, as the harvest, rain and war.

   Indians observers of nature, most of them, thought that the man should do is with decorative purposes and attract the interest of women. Thus, in some tribes, only men were engaged to paint and to decorate their bodies with plumage.

   Women could, however, help to paint her husband's body. Since very soon they adorn the male children, preparing the necklaces, the belts, bracelets and doing the trimmings of cotton used in the legs.

   Despite the surrounding flora and fauna, the Indians always painted abstract and geometric designs. It was perhaps a symbolic picture that from the natural and simple should be rich in meanings.

The Body Painting of Bakairi used four colors: the black-blue of jenipapo, the red of the annatto, black coal and the white clay called Tabatinga. The black-blue was used specifically to produce graphics designs on the bodies, always associated with animals. The red of the annatto is used mixed with oil and immediately pequi, this color is set high on the forehead and feet. The other parts of the body, receives a diluted solution creating a reddish color that aims to highlight the design of black jenipapo.

   The coal removed from the wood fires burning in the background or the utensils of clay are used in facial makeup, using a splint of Bunte without cotton. The trace is not scratched, but form.

There are many patterns of face painting and more used is the "kavida enuçaveno," the parrot. • In preparation of the ink that is formed by jenipapo, it must be picked green, because this way their flesh is more care. Mix then water the pulpy mass. Then with a cloth squirm and collect the mixture until all the broth. It is placed in a pan to heat and when you start to foam, the ink is ready.

The Indians paint their bodies in the day to day and on special occasions (party, mourning, war, etc.).. Paint can be related to indigenous beliefs, identification of a particular tribe, members of the same tribe or simply serve to beautify the body.

  In some tribes of the Xingu, and Yawalapiti Kamaiurá between them, still there is the ritual of preparation for marriage.

When a girl reaches adolescence, it is about a year confined in a hollow to learn from older women to the obligations of adulthood. In this period it leaves the hair grow on the face (fringe), tie strips of cipó at the knees, causing the leg is quite bulky. When leaving this period of confinement, through the ritual of body painting and cutting fringe as preparation for the time of marriage.

The paints used are taken from nature, primarily of annatto (red and yellow) and jenipapo (black and blue). With seeds, bird feathers, pieces of bamboo, bone, etc.. made necklaces, cocares, body ornaments and the decoration of weapons.

   Tribe of Kadiwéu

   The thin body design is achieved by Kadiwéu was a remarkable expression of his art. Skilled designers prints faces with symmetrical and detailed drawings, tracings obtained with the ink of the mixture of juice jenipapo with carbon dust, applied with a thin splinter of wood or bamboo. In the past, body painting marked the difference between nobles, warriors and captives.

The body painting is the expression literally "live the union of art with the human anatomy", and another part is to portray the beautiful. The art is not yet widespread in Brazil, but is strong in countries such as Australia, Germany and France, where, incidentally, a very tender valued by artists engaged in this painting. In Portugal is already much seen and even are shops where you can go and do one.

The body painting, also called the makeup artist (or body painting, in English), each part of the body turns into an element of work, whose result is the beauty of the whole.

The makeup artist is different from the makeup of characterization (theater, cinema or TV) mainly because the concern is not to transform a person in character, but cause a visual effect, an expression of beauty. The body painting stems, of the effects obtained with plastic visual elements as line, shape, color, volume and texture, as well as the principles of organization, composition, balance, harmony, rhythm and movement. The technical field of the design is one of the fundamental tools to perform this work.

In body painting, the makeup artist explores the sensitivity and creativity together with techniques of artistic composition, drawing, painting and cosmetics specific, appropriate to the practice of art. Before the resources available today, one of the ways that artists use to tackle the paint for the body of water was mixed with paste food coloring, or baby oil or almonds with pigments. Unfortunately almost all products used today for the makeup artists are imported and expensive. Therefore some aberrations occur in the use of some paintings based on the oil paint with latex and to the consequent burning of the skin, allergies and other symptoms.

The makeup used on body painting should be made with water neutral folder, so non toxic, and non toxic if eaten. Even so, the red should be avoided in the eyes and mouth, since the pigment that results in color comes from an insect produced in a laboratory.
A disadvantage of body painting, is that it is an ephemeral art. It takes hours to be designed, outlined the role, embodied in human anatomy and, if not registered as a photographic image or film, no one else can admire it.