Funniest Face Painting Comments or Stories??

Heh.....I once had a kid that was looking a little green when he got to the front of the line. I asked him a couple of times during the painting if he was ok. He said he was. Then when I showed him the mirror he leaned forward and barfed between by shoes.

A commentary on the artistic merits of my work?

Only other humor I can think of also comes as a warning to the male face painters out there. I'm a " tall chair and stand while I'm painting" painter, and a couple times I've had kids shimmy up into the big chair, swing their legs around to sit, and swing their foot right into the "family jewels". Ouch.

My very first FP gig was this time last year, and this 5 year old little girl was SO excited to get painted... literally bouncing around and couldn't hardly wait her turn. I got her on the stool and she got really stiff, bowed up and threw her hands out at me before I could paint anything. Then she says, "Wait a minute! I just want to make sure you know what you are doing here. I have been a painter my w-h-o-l-e life, and just want to make sure you are a professional." I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. She was dead serious too... I was not touching her face until I told her my entire painting history! lol

I was once painting a little girl, I was bending over to paint her face and I noticed a puzzled look on her face... "what is that?!?!?" she exclaimed, I noticed she was staring straight down mytop... before I could pull up my top (it was a lower neck and I was bending straight over, she went to put her hand down there... Thankfully her mummy spotted her at this stage and stopped her but it didn't stop her asking what was down my top.
Eventually we figured she had spotted a shiny heart which was attatched to my bra, and it was about to fall right off.

well, got another funny moment to share with you all! My daughter Mikayla will be 2 and a half at the end of this month. I got a little too sucked into you tube tutorials and inspirations the day before a gig, and well...you know when you suddenly realize that your kids are being WAAAAY too quiet??

Well, upon investigation, I discovered why....




Monkey see, monkey doo. The apple truley does not fall far from the tree. Of course she had to get into the shiny smooth new paints, which hurt my feelings a tad, but dang if she just isn't too stinkin adorable to be mad at.

Over the past month I have been busy at one fair after another. I have had so many moments that I am having a hard time picking which ones to share! They weren't all funny, a lot were just very touching. I got to paint quite a few special children. One autistic girl wanted a butterfly. When I told her to close her eyes, she gently closed them and started whispering "Imagine" to herself. I asked her what she was imagining. She said, "I believe...butterfly!" It was so cute!

Another girl I painted had been burned by her family on over 90% of her body. Her new foster mother had brought her to me. The girl was so abused that she wouldn't even speak. When I finished painting a flower around her eye, she got the biggest smile and got so excited. Later that evening, she literally ran into my tent on their way back through the fair to look in my mirror again. Then she asked me to paint the same thing the next night.

One last story. I got to paint a belly at one of the fairs. I happened to mention to a pregnant woman that I did bellies. She decided to get hers done on the spot. Her husband is in Afghanistan and was getting ready to go out on a special mission. She was due any day and had started dilating. She got her belly painted a camouflage shirt with the last name on one tag and U.S. Army on the other tag over the "pockets" and with her husbands rank painted on. He happened to call her during the painting, and I got to listen to her telling him all about how her day had turned around from being just horrible to great because she was getting her belly painted and pictures were going to be posted on facebook for him to see. Their conversation was so touching as she expressed concern for his safety and hope that he would be able to see the birth of their baby, that she wouldn't go into labor before he was able to come home.

I was painting a b-day party at a park. This lady insisted on her 1 1/2 yr old be painted. I suggested something small on her forarm. No, she had her heart set on a cheek design. I tried to work with her but the child didnt want anything to do with it. The mom suggest "maybe she"ll be still if I give her milk" So I was thinking she was going to grab a bottle...no she popped out her boobie and was forcing the poor child to latch on. I understand its natural and a beautiful thing for a child & mother to experience but, not while I'm trying to face paint. It was really awkward, her guest were arriving and she was waiving them down to know where her party was while this was going on. people were doing double takes. I insisted on an arm design and that's what we did. And the lil girl let me paint her arm she was interested in watching. Thats my story so far.

That's both funny and weird all at the same time Tasha! Being a bfeeding mother myself, i completely support a mother's decision to feed her kid whenever or wherever they like, but I personally wouldn't have done that myself if it were my baby. Popping out the boob when the baby is fussy usually does solve all problems though

I just painted at a barnyard themed birthday party. It was very nice with pony rides and even a few animals running around for the kids to pet. While I was painting one of the Dad's, a crazy little goat runs over to me and pops it's hooves up on my leg and tries to nibble my brush. I said," Hello Mr. goat, please go away!" Then I pushed him off of me only to have him then climb on the man I was painting. LOL

They were the funniest goats I have ever seen and were jumping all over the place all evening. But the hosting family had a hay pile set up not far from my table that had toys and candy buried in so the kids could do a goody bag dive as one of the games. Well, those goats had been playing in that hay all evening and by the time the kids were ready for that game, the mom realized that the goats had been pooping and peeing it! Needless to say , no haystack game.

Chucklor those stories are so touching! It made me a bit teary eyed just reading them.
I'm new to face painting and actually had a moment myself at my last birthday party I went to. It was for my niece, and she's actually autistic, she's really quiet and doesn't like to talk. Her mom insisted on giving her a cheek design but she was reluctant to do it so we settled on her arm. Her mom suggested things like flowers and all kinds of sparkly things and then out of nowhere she just blurted "Lizard!" so I drew a lizard on her arm and she watched so attentively as I finished she was so happy that she actually warmed up to wanting something on her face. A snake of all things! She was so happy by the end of it, it was really something else. I had never really seen her smile before so it was really something beautiful for me. It was really inspiring.

LOOOOVE your stories Chucklor and Louie especially, I have an autistic 4 year old son myself, so those are really amazing for me. He never ceases to amaze me...and I'm blessed he seems to be really high functioning, but just within the last couple weeks he suddenly wanted a 'tattoo' when before he wanted nothing to do with it. Now he seems to LOVE it. If you look in my gallery, its him who requested the 'full moon' and got the 'shooting star' on his arm. He loved them () Those kind of smiles and special moments are something beautiful that makes all the other craziness and unpredictability about this work worth it. That story about the military mom also got me. wow. what a moment. I had a little girl at Relay for Life who was clearly a cancer patient, bald head and tutu, come over, and I told her Mom not to worry about payment for her...I asked what she wanted, butterfly, etc...she said 'a GREEN Monster!!' at this point it was my first real gig with real paints, so I didnt really know how to do it, but I just made up a silly cute little fuzzy monster on her arm with a tongue sticking out. Her mom paid and tipped me and I just wish I could have done more because I cant imagine what a mother goes through watching their child suffer with an illness like that. Makes my trials and triblulations seem like a piece of cake. Thank you all for sharing these are wonderful stories, funny and touching alike! Keep em coming!