The Colormoon Festival back in the beginning of December was happening as a way to bring more positive attention to the island (rather than all those crazy Full Moon parties and the stigma that came with a “40,000-drunken-tourists night of debauchery”). One of my friends tagged me a few other gals in a post for a woman looking for models. There was a body painting competition happening that night and they needed bodies...literally. The fact they were also going to pay 1500B for a model wasn’t a bad thing either. ::grin:: I got the details from the gal, cleared my schedule, aaaaand Let’s Do This!!!
Photo property of Kira Zebroski
A couple of gals I knew also showed up and the group totaled about 9 of us, all farangs (foreigners) and women. They ushered us into an air conditioned room and we relaxed with bottles of water. About 10 minutes later, a group of Thai guys walked in and one was wearing slacks and a white polo shirt. This fact alone made the guy unusual. I noticed he has some writing on his shirt and reading it, realized it said Tourist Police. I then looked up to his face and SHIT! I knew the guy!
Side Story Time:
So about a month ago I had to go pick up one of the new students for Samma Karuna at the pier. Not a new thing but this time I was holding a piece of paper with their name and Samma Karuna typed on it (a way for them to identify I was their ride). Standing at the pier with the sign and suddenly there’s this guy next to me starting to rapid-fire question me. “What’s your name? Where are you working at? Where’s your work visa? Why are you here? Where’s your work visa? How long have you been here for? Where’s your work visa?” I’m sensing a theme here. I was flustered and trying to figure out what the hell is going on when I saw on his shirt he’s with the Tourist Police. I tried to answer his questions as honestly as possible without going to jail or getting deported. “I’m just another student. I’m not working. Helping out a friend to pick up another student. We just do yoga and stuff. I’m not working. I’m just on vacation. I’m not working.” He continued to pester me with questions and left with a jab of his finger that the next time he saw me, he wanted to see my work visa.
Back to the Colormoon Festival. In case you haven’t figured it out...this was the same guy!! I started freaking out. ::covering face with hand, slouching down, just trying to not attract attention:: I was suddenly worried this was a tourist trap. They were just waiting for us to take the money so they can throw us in jail and deport us. The guy was standing with his hands behind his back and surveying the crowd. Total cop stance.
Pre-painted face
Photo property of Kira Zebroski
Everyone sat down and waited for a bit. A guy then assigned each of us girls a number and when he started to go to the men for them to pick out a number, I had this horrifying suspicion. He’s one of the painters!! There are 9 painters and 11 models. I had pretty good odds in getting one of the other artists, right? I was sitting there, thinking Anyone but him. Come on, anyone but him. They got to him…. “Number 3.” F*#k!!!!!!!
I walked up to him and we shook hands. We introduced ourselves (don’t ask me to remember his name. I was freaking out too much) and he paused at my name. Shit! He remembers! Lying just seemed like a bad idea so I just glossed over details as he asked some basic information. Probably innocent enough questions but my mind was racing to not giving away anything incriminating. He asked me what I had to wear and I showed him some different tops. He picked one and I rushed to change. When he asked about my bottoms, I had a limited selection. He chose my bikini bottoms but they didn’t match the top so I had to change again. By then end, I’m standing in my swimsuit. The girls around me were getting dressed down also. Some apparently didn’t wear/bring swimsuits but luckily everyone was wearing underwear. ::chuckle:: I had wondered if they’d ask us to go topless but I figured with the Thai culture, this probably wasn’t going to happen. I figured out how they got around this fact when one of the painters started painting over the girl’s clothes. ::shrug:: Guess I was happy I had no attachment to how my swimsuit looks when I go to the beach. :-)
He looked at me briefly, squinting and moving to different angles. He nodded and then quickly started to paint. He hesitated before he put the first splash of paint on, airbrushing before he took a deep breath and put it to “canvas”. It was kind of endearing. He started with my face and it was an odd feeling. Where do I look?
I glanced around and noticed sketches he had of different underwater creatures: turtles, squid, a diver, and more. He had some outlined on a female figure too. They were good! There weren’t any mirrors and so I had no idea what I looked like. People would stop and nod with a smile or take pictures. I saw the rest of the girls first getting changed and then turned this way and that before the artists finally started painting. Most of my face was already covered by that point. He wasn’t shy with the paint and so as my skin became more and more covered, my movement became more and more restricted. I didn’t want the paint to crack and ruin all his hard work.
Photo property of Kira Zebroski
They interrupted the artists’ work to have all the models practice our “runway walk.” They had a woman who was obviously a model take us through our paces. As a result, there are so many random pictures and videos of half naked, half painted farang women practicing their haughty walks. Let’s just say the guys seem to really be enjoying the practice. My cop artist was even loosening up, telling me I had a very good walk. ::chuckle::
I stayed standing for the majority of the time, turning as he’d motion this way or that. He was very precise and focused. Can’t imagine why. ;-) They fed us at one point and it was the most awkward thing as I couldn’t move my arms very far or open my mouth very wide. People were entertained though so at least I was putting on a show. A woman came and asked my artist about how come he started painting so quickly compared to the rest of the painters. He said he just looked at my body and knew what to do. Awww!!!
Photo property of Kira Zebroski
While painting me, I learned a few things about my cop-artist. He was also a painter. Watercolors. He’d never painted a person before. He also asked me questions and I did my best to be honest without saying anything incriminating. Always on my toes! He also got up close and personal with my swimsuit. We’d realized after a girl was painted, her clothes would shift and then skin would show, disrupting the line of the paintings. He decided to get around this by painting under my bathing suit. He yoinked the back of my bottoms and painted it black, both the top and the sides. And then he did the same for the front. All I could think was “I’m so glad I shaved!” ::laugh::
He was definitely a perfectionist, painting down to the wire. They counted down the last 30 minutes and he became more and more anxious, making little touch ups here and there. In the end, he was the first to start and the last to finish. 6 ½ hours of painting. I was covered from the top of my head down to my ankles and still had no idea what I looked like. They drove us to the festival but he’d painted my butt last (he realized he hadn’t put anything there) and it was still wet. So I stood in the truck and waved to people as we passed them. The looks on their faces were priceless!
Photo property of Kira Zebroski
We arrived at the stage and I had one of the girls videotape me so I could see what I looked like. It was first time I’d seen everything. WOW!! Click Here
The competition started and we did our runway walks. Our first walk. They also changed things and had us walk a second time with our artists. They also had the artist describe his/her paintings and their inspiration. We seemed in sync, walking and turning together, holding hands as we walked. In the end, we didn’t win or even make the top 3. I was surprised. Come on, who doesn’t want to win? He told me why as we walked out. He’s a cop and so can’t win, but I was the winner in his heart. Again...Awwww!
Some of my friends came to see the competition. They didn’t recognize me underneath all that paint. I was telling one of them, Filippo, about my artist and being the tourist police and suddenly there he was! He pointed to both of us “you are friends?” And then began asking questions “Where are you from? Where are you staying? How long have you been here?” I then explained what I’d been telling them about the painting process and he nodded. He stood another minute with us and the walked off. Whew!! Filippo and I laughed. He’d been terrified he was about to be hauled away in handcuffs, but I had learned it was just a part of his personality. I asked my fellow models for their contact information and my cop-artist seemed to be disappointed when I didn’t ask for his. I was tempted but I just couldn’t bring myself to share contact information with the police. I didn’t want to find out what would happen if he was put in a position of choosing between me and the law in case I lost.
Photo property of Kira Zebroski
The models were all paid and taken back to the resort where our bikes were. A couple of us went out to the 3 Monkeys bar where they had black lights. I can only imagine what people thought when they saw a blue creature driving around the island in the dark. Aliens!! I was tempted to leave the paint until the following morning and greet people at work in my getup but that stuff was starting to itch. It only took about 20 minutes and a lot of scrubbing to get it all off. It was fun turning the bathroom different colors. But I was clean again!
And so ended another day in Thailand. Cheers!
