Daegu International Body Painting Festival

If it weren't for the weather forecast, I doubt the body painting festival would have been as successful (or as full of men) as it was. When I left my apartment at 3 in the afternoon, the weather forecasters were promising rain; buckets of it. However, when I arrived at Duryu park, the sun was burning through the clouds... and the male portion of the audience was looking dissapointed. As for the artists and models, it meant that the fashion show would go on!

The commentary for the show was completely in Korean. Thankfully, SJ tagged along at the last minute and brought her boyfriend, Seong Lok (who didn't speak a lick of English). I recruited her (as I so often do) as my personal translator, which was great because I was completely wrong guessing the theme of each painted person. Below are some photos. I tried to snap a shot of the front and back of each contestant, but some were bounding across the stage like gazelles, so excuse some blurriness (I was sitting very far away).



She was definitely a crowd favorite. Her theme was "chameleon". Click on the pictures to enlarge them (you can see a chameleon on her ribcage- I'm sure that's where you are looking anyway ;))Those are the artists who painted him. He is the younger brother of the girl on the right and he was terribly nervous. He said "I am naked on a stage right now! I can't stop shaking."
His theme was "fire", thus the phoenix and fire dragon.
Her theme was a peacock. I didn't see it at all....there was a second peacock entry (scroll down some more) and the second is much more obvious.

"Colorful Daegu" is the slogan/motto for Daegu. It's plastered on everything from buildings to street lamps, sidewalks and even on toilet seats!
This girl was so spicy! She posed and worked the stage for a solid 10 minutes before the host had to wrestle the audience back from her. She is also quite possibly the tallest Korean woman I have ever seen.

He represented animal spirits!! I loved the nails.
They never said her theme :(
Waves of the ocean.

"Chinese spirit"

Native American! No specific tribe mentioned, though.

This guy was all the way form Russia! His theme was "Color, line and pointillism"

"Demented Clown/Evil Circus".....wearing Wonder Woman boots I might add. And very interesting positioning of the um.... pupils of the eyes?

She was sooo dynamic! She did several ballet moves. her theme was "My imaginary butterfly"

Japanese Geisha.

They have not announced the winner yet, so your guess is as good as mine. In my opinion, it is a tie between the Chameleon and the Butterfly. The most intricate artwork was on the "Waves of the Ocean" girl, but you just can't beat the charisma of the Butterfly- she rolled around on stage in nothing but paint for crying out loud!

I'd love to hear your votes for the winner- just comment on this post :o)