What's the most disgusting thing you've encountered whilst painting?

I am a total germaphobe (my customers love this!) and yesterday while I was painting a butterfly on this adorable little girl she did the biggest, wettest (is that a word?), sloppiest sneeze right in my face....

GROSS!

I hope she didn't have a lurgie! I got a wipe and immediately cleaned my face and gave her a tissue... then she proceeded to reach up and put her snotty tissue on my set up....Noice!

EWW! I have had a kid breath a big sigh in my face and had the nastiest warm breathe right in my face as I was doing fine line work I was kinda up close... it happened twice I was so grossed out just finished the design fast after that.

yeah, sneezing, coughing, snotty noses, drooling, lice, food stains around the mouth....no vomit yet.....

Sometimes kids have what i call 'sick breath', where they must be recovering from a cold or throat infection. It smells kind of sulfurish when they breathe on you.

Par for the course to experience all these things when painting i guess!

i had a vomiter yesterday... lucky i was painting his hand but he leant over while i was mid snake and proceeded to vomit while i was still holding his hand.. His mother then said to me 'i think his done, keep going'. He wasnt done yet though. and i was not painting him after that.

Why do parents think this is ok behavious or just ignore it completely like nothing happened.

yes Boogers! coughing, sneezing runny nose. did a muzzle on a girl & her nose started to run and ruined the paint. it dripped down into her mouth and black smeared I had to just wipe it off and she was not happy. poor girl she was so sickie tho. she shouldn't have been parting. lol And then their is the teenager with the real bad acne. What do YOU do when you get bad case of acne in your chair????

My worst was a little girl squatting in front front of our sign and proceeding to poop her pants, someone must have got the Mom to notice, who half carried half dragged her away- while she continued pooping along the walk way. Flies came, and I had to go borrow a shovel from the petting zoo next to us to clean it up. I'm not sure but I think they came back later to get painted! How can a parent not apologize for something like that! Just grateful it wasn't on my chair.

oh fairyfox that is hilarious, gross, yet funny...

Being sneezed on is the worst (so far, omg, vomit and poop! Suddenly, I feel lucky!). I feel paranoid about getting sick for days after. And I refuse to paint anything anywhere near a runny nose! Yuck! Why bring your sick as child and put them in my face.

I had a little girl climb into my chair..kind of squirmy, i asked her if she had to pee, she said yes, so I told dad to take her and they could skip the line and be next as soon as she got back. He said no, insisted she was fine...30 seconds later, she looked up at me and said "I'm peeing" I yelled "NO" and grabbed her out of my directors chair...but too late...a big puddle. I passed her to dad and when I turned back to deal with the mess...a wee one was playing with her hands in the puddle on the chair....eewwwwww. That Dad certainly got the stink eye from all the mom's in line as I had to shut down for 20 minutes to go to my camper and get a spare seat cover for the chair.

Oh HELL !! Vomit/Pee/boogies??? That is horrendous ! Not sure i want to paint anymore....LOL

I hate when kids take their sick kids out... so so selfish! Also, another thing that really gripes me is when parents don't wipe their kids faces clean and when I hand them a wipe they look at me like I've asked them to put me in their will. Omg . i have another one.... forcing your kids to get painted... WTF is with that!!???

With regards to the acne thing, I haven't encountered that yet. I am hopeless with words when put on the spot so I'd be doomed !

OK, I have to confess a deliberate lapse of judgment one day, when I was just done wiping sticky hands and faces so I could paint, for mothers in a classier area that I knew knew better. Finally, I just painted on top of a little girl's boogers... (In my defense, there was a long line, & I didn't re-use the brush afterwards). Mamma said nothing--but the point was made. It was my gig, so no reflection on an agent--and anyway, could she seriously complain? Lesson: Take breaks before you reach this point...

Boogers....and lots of them. UGH. What parent sits a child in a chair to be painted with a nose and chin full of green thick boogers.
**I just threw up in my mouth**

I hate when someone brings me their kids covered in food or snot. I always ask them where their parents are and make it a point to hand them a wipe! Ugg! I'm not wiping someone elses kids boggies! LOL

I think some kids noses are more sensitive to the perfumes in the paint and cause their little noses to run

I think I would be pretty upset if a parent put a stomach virus sick kid in my chair I'm sure the other parents would not be happy either!

Thankfully, the only gross thing I've had to deal with so far is food on the face... Since it's usually at a birthday party, the mom is off busy somewhere so it's my job to wipe the kid's face off. Not my favourite thing to do... but I am so glad I haven't had to deal with boogers or barf yet.

I had a bigger kid (about 12), with a huge, I mean HUGE green booger right on the edge of his nostril & I was doing a tiger on him. I couldn't stop staring at the ugly thing & was so afraid to touch it with my brush. You know, the kind of booger that's barely latched on but moves in & out with each breathe... So freakin' gross!

I've only had snotty faces on occasion here and there and I hand mom the babywipes and direct to the sign.

I have a sign (Thanks Shannon F!) that states 4 things!

-This is a 'good manners zone' and only nice boys and girls who behave well in line get painted
-Only happy willing faces will be painted
-Persons with broken skin, sunburn, coldsores, cunjunctivitis or appearing to be sick may not be painted for sanitary reasons. Your understanding is appreciated!
-each full face takes 4-7 minutes to complete! Please be aware of how many are ahead of you when you make the decision to wait based on how much time is left!

*The zone is just a threat, but it helps!
*Keeping it to 'happy' can save snotty crying faces
*broken skin covers bad acne without saying 'bad zits' or 'acne'
*the last one seems like does almost no good or it is just the stubborn 'I'm special so that is for the other guys, not me' that are left and won't read. Not sure which!

It's soooo gross how many of these things I can relate to! Yucky

when a kid has to cough or sneeze I tell them to raise their hand and I back off with lightning speed! Doesn't work every time but has saved me a bunch!

At a festival, the next child in line started vomiting oogles and googles. She ran out of the crowded tent, but not fast enough to keep from spewing vomit all over my, as well as most of the others at the front of the line, ankles and shoes. I was told she had marched in the band at the parade in 100+ F degrees. So it was most likely heat related.

Am I the only one who has a little one get up into my chair and then proceed to pick her nose and eat it right in front of me????

I haven't, should've asked the mom if she's been fed recently..hehe

Ugh...blech. I feel a little sick after reading this thread!

I had a girl who was about 8 or 9 and was with a birthday group at a PPF event, and they had been jumping in a bouncy house for about an hour then came to get their faces painted. I painted her first as a butterfly and she looked kinda green as I was finishing up...but she made it through and wandered off saying she needed to go buy a bottle of water... as I was painting the last girl from the group she came back with her butterfly half smeared all over/half wiped off and her mom was asking me to fix her butterfly because she ended up puking up her corn dog and cotton candy all over it. I told her that it wouldn't have been sanitary to do so, and she was MAAAAAD but the next 4 or 5 people in line thanked me for turning her away. As a mom myself if it were my kid puking I would NEVER expect someone to agree to repaint them.

I've dealt w/ kids w/ runny noses & food or dirt all over their faces. Most times I just use a wipe & say, "Lets just wash all that fun off your face."
I feel bad when I have a child that is obviously miserably sick & being dragged around.
I have a friend that continuously infects us all because she won't keep her sick kids home. I have 5 kids, so an illness can be a 2 month ordeal full of medicine, lost work/homeschool/activities/church, and Dr visits, antibiotics, etc. Even w/ health insurance the co-pays can really add up.
So far I've had no vomiters in my chair.
I really don't like it when a child is so dirty they smell(I have a weak nose). The ones you know haven't bathed in days...

Am I just horribly wicked? This thread kinda made my day. I was laughing my butt off at the pee puddle story. Literally LOL. It's not funny at the time, but seriously, that's funny to look back on. Ahhh... kids and their fun. I am a mom of 3 under 3 and it sucks when it's you. All you can do is laugh. Sometimes you don't always have a baby wipe handy if your kids get messy. Honestly, if I have to stand in a line for 10 min. with a wiggly kid, I might give them something to eat to keep them happy. That could potentially translate to food on the face when they get to the painter. I, personally, would ask the painter if they had a wipe, and I would wipe them myself, but I think parents really appreciate it when you take a second and wipe the child's face. Heck, they might even assume that's what the wipes on your table are for, and that's why they don't worry about it. I really like "let's wash all that fun off your face" Linda. That's cute.
I TOTALLY agree about parents who force their kids to be painted. I HATE that!! It's the poor little infants that don't want me touching them and they are screaming and the moms are holding their little heads. It's so hard to say no when the moms "just want something small". sigh. When the tears start... I'm done.

Big green boogers are the worst. Sometimes I think a kids ok and ask them 'chin up' and then see a nose full of nasty green boogers! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Cant stqnd it.

maybe not disgusting per se, but drunk/ tipsy adults wanting to get their faces painted.