You KNOW the face painter is unhappy when...

You think like an evil genius, acarreon... and I like that in a person

Some of this stuff you just cannot make up....

Like, how many times have you been sneezed on a had snot fly out of a kid's nose and land somewhere on your person?

Buahahahahaha!!!! Why thank you very much!
But I've never been sneezed on! Just boogers picked out and wiped on me!

Or had a child throw up at your feet, seconds after they leave your chair?

OMG!! This looks more like "tales from the face painter crep" haha, I like your mud girls!!!

Jeez! These horror stories make my worst parties seem super tame. Moose entrails.... yikes.

One of my worst nightmares is a kid puking on/near me, I am suuuuper vomit-phobic and would probably run screaming from the gig!

One of my least favorite things, not much compared to poop and entrails, is really loud music that leaves my ears ringing after a party! Especially if it has f-bombs in it at a kid's party. Happened too many times. I've been meaning to stick earplugs in my kit.

Last party I was at, I was stationed at a really wobbly round table... well you can imagine, kids were bumping into the darn thing every 2 minutes and splashing my water all over the place, including my printed-off designs in photo sleeves... I'm going to have to reprint and cut all of those out again this week!

Arrrrggghhhh!!!! So frustrating and I feel your pain, Janna!

A few weeks ago I had a birthday party that was at a lovely rustic cabin in the woods type inn... they had me set up on the dance floor because that's where they wanted the kids to play. Well, great idea in theory... except the dance floor was wooden and apparently the floating type... 24 kids running around constantly on that floor made me feel like I was painting inside a bouncy house. Have to say, my work sucked that day

Oh man Ronnie I would of been puking on the kids feet instead if the other way HAHA!

We could collect horror stories & publish a collaborative book. Maybe even include photos of BAD face painting & step-by-steps of some weird creations.

We'll call it "Battery Acid for the Face Painter's Soul"

Whattaya think?

FugitiveFromMediocrity wrote:We could collect horror stories & publish a collaborative book. Maybe even include photos of BAD face painting & step-by-steps of some weird creations.

We'll call it "Battery Acid for the Face Painter's Soul"

Whattaya think?

LOL!

I would definately buy that!

Miss Ronnie wrote:

Like, how many times have you been sneezed on a had snot fly out of a kid's nose and land somewhere on your person?

Only once - but I've only been painting for a year!!! LOL!

girlbyjuly wrote:

One of my worst nightmares is a kid puking on/near me, I am suuuuper vomit-phobic and would probably run screaming from the gig

Me too! After a year of therapy and anxiety meds, I can FINALLY care for my oldest daughter when she has a tummy bug without having a panic attack. My husband still has to help me when our younger daughter is sick though (she rarely makes it into the bucket). Emetophobia is a REAL disorder and more people have it then you think! I can absolutely agree, being puked on/near is one of my biggest fears too!

Fugitive, that is the funniest book title and concept! I'd buy it too!

Becky, I didn't know there was such a fear... I am surprised you can even talk about it!!!!

I got a gig through an inflatable company with a school for fun day... hundreds of kids showed up, one painter, 4 hours.... the event coordinators INSISTED I share my paint with the volunteer helpers, I insisted no. They took it upon themselves to disperse it anyway. Needless to say I had to put in an order for an entire kit the next day.

Thank god for some of the nice painters on here who helped me out

Jessica... Hard lesson learned. I'm assuming you didn't INSIST that the event coordinators replace your kit. I am appalled at how people treat our business and products as though we walked off the street with a $1.99 drugstore child's watercolor palette.

Oh contraire, Miss Ronnie, the school will indeed be reimbursing me $200 and I covered the rest. I was disgusted with how the inflatable company treated the issue - I called after the event to explain about a reimbursement and was told that they basically won't do s***. They wanted their cheque mailed and I had to deal with it myself.

It was at that point that I decided to deal with the issue under my own business name. I think they should've been the ones to work out arrangements with the school, not me. So I figured if they want me to do it, I'll do it my way... Is that bad business? I think it's just Karma..

Oh my goodness Jessica! If anyone tried to touch my paints I would seriously lose it. I would probably look a little ferral and people would know I was serious. That is MY kit. NO ONE touches it!!

OH wow! Your patience is really epic! I think I would have snapped if I told them 'no' and someone grabbed stuff off my kit! That would be the same as someone insisting they had the right to dig in my purse and parse out my wallet and makeup!?!?!? I cannot believe the nerve!!!!!!!! I've had someone puke at my table but I kinda saw it coming so luckily we had a bucket and she waited until I was done hennaing her! Ahhhh...drunk patrons - always make for an interesting evening!

Friday night, I took a 10 minute break to eat a snack and use the restroom. It was a 5 hour gig. In those 10 minutes a guy came up to my friend who was painting with me and said he heard we needed more painters and sat down in my chair to "help". Well, first of all, the chair is for the KID to sit in, and NO ONE touches my stuff without permission. Thankfully, my friend told him, no we are hired by the school to be there, those paints belong to us, and I was only going to be gone a few minutes. He wandered off quite irritated. ?!?!? Next year, we WILL need a 3rd painter. Our line gets longer every year, but I gave out some coupons to the last 10 or so families in line (for a small percentage off of a 2 hour party during my slow months) which thrilled those families.

Cat and Moose, ewwwwe. I had a dog pee on my fat max, and a couple of weeks ago, was outside and the dog kept taking dumps all around me. The hostess took mulch, and covered them. By the end, there were little mine fields all around. Why not pick it up, or better yet, put the dog up? And WHAT were they feeding him? I swear, there were six piles, it was a two hour party. What dog goes six times in two hours?

I swear, almost every week I see something else to put in my contract. Not that anyone reads it. Last week, I got to an event, and SHADE and rain protection is in my contract, or they have to rent my tent and pay me to put it up. Get there. No shade. Oh, I did not read that....duh. So, they get me a tent for this tattoo event. Everything is fine. At the end, some boys come up, and ask if I still need my tent, and I said, yes I want it until I am done cleaning up. So, they ask for tattoos, I gave them to them, stand up to start packing up, and away my tent goes with the boys...Um, did I say, "no, take my tent, but let me slap a tattoo on you first? This must have been the woman with the pooping dogs son.

If I am ever puked on, I think I will die. Can't even think about that one.

I have a feeling this thread will run into the next decade....

Yesterday, I had a wonderful birthday party for 3 year old triplet girls... so stinking cute.

HOWEVER.... I gave a "last call" for face painting (not in those exact words, mind you) and the next thing i know, a father comes up carrying his son, Andrew, who appeared to be 5 or 6 or 7 and had some form of cerebral palsy. He set Andrew down by himself in the chair. Andrew's face was all wet from his constant drooling. Thinking quick, I told the father that I could do a glitter tattoo of a Mickey Mouse silhouette (hand drawn, because I only bring tattoo stencils for the birthday child(ren))... It was quite the challenge to apply this tattoo to the boy's arm because he was unable to keep it in one place and extended for me. But Andrew had the biggest, happiest smile of all time and I was determined to give him his tattoo.

Well... half a dozen baby wipes later (for me, not him) I got that sucker on his arm. But the scene played out like this;

Apply some glue, streams of drool drip on my fingers... yuck...
Baby wipe, please!
The drool keeps coming in CONSTANT long strings and drips....

Apply more glue, drool drips on hand...
Baby wipe, please!

Glue... drool on fingers again
You get the pattern...

I was drowning in drool. I got drool multiple times on my fingers, hand, dress, shoe, down into my shoe on my toes.... ewwwww!!!!

The father sat in the chair nearby and just laughed and smiled and gave Andrew encouragement and instructions. "Wipe your mouth, Andrew", "Keep your arm straight, Andrew".... Obviously they are encouraging Andrew to do for himself... but not one apology for the drooling. What was I going to do? I was not going to talk about it in front of the child, as he was too happy to get his tattoo.

It like any other thing; if it's your child, you don't mind cleaning up the poo, pee, vomit, drool, etc.... But it is not the same when it comes from a stranger, no matter how cute and adorable they are or how sympathetic I feel. It was, by far, the grossest thing I have had to encounter to date.


The hostess did give me $20 tip beyond my 2 hour fee... so i guess i can be bought!!!

You are a trooper Ronnie! You will never be given more then you can handle!

fesspenter wrote:The second birthday party I ever did professionally, I was placed next to a stinky cat litter box.
The lady had two cats.
They had frequent, foul-smelling, loose stools.
Their kitchen, where they moved me to smelled even worse.
Dad was boiling something in a big pot.
He was doing something with moose entrails from a recent hunting foray.
When I left, I felt I could smell cat diarrhea, burning moose fur and boiled moose fecal matter for days.

LOL!

This is not face face painting story, but many years ago someone talked me into being a rep for a Scrapbooking company (you know the one... selling items in ladies homes...). Well, my 1st party the lady had like 30 cats (the house stunk of cat & cigarettes). She did not have a/c & had fans blowing cat hair everywhere. I opened my mouth to say my opening statement & breathed in a giant hairball. I proceeded to choke, cry & sneeze through the whole presentation. No one bought a thing.