​Images of Vegas acrobats, Hollywood starlets and magazine cover girls’ flashes in our minds when we think of Body Painting. All these seem very hip and contemporary, but contrary to popular belief body painting is an ancient art. If historians are to be believed, body painting is perhaps the first art form practiced by mankind. Enough evidence can be found in the Asian, African, European and Australia cultures to support the claim of body painting being the first art form mankind ever practiced. 

​What comes to mind when you think about body paint? Maybe you think of those days at the carnivals or state fair where you could get your face painted into a butterfly or a tiger. Perhaps you think about tattoos, a more permanent type of body paint. The truth is, though, that body paint comes in multiple forms and styles. This art style provides many ways to express yourself by using your own body as the canvas.
 
But before we got to the modern forms of body paint that we see today, where did it get its start? And how did it grow into the art form that we see today?