Ever since man developed enough skills to have leisure time, he has been practicing art. Many times this took the form of painting or creating beautiful pottery. Eventually, man chose to decorate other men and women. Dying the skin with henna has long been a practice in many cultures. Some people do have a reaction to this substance, and their temporary designs may become permanent. That is not often the case, and temporary designs have flourished throughout the centuries. Many are used to mark special occasions and religious rituals.
A more permanent form of body art is tattooing. It has many names, the latest of which is ink art. Tattooing is much like henna dying, but the ink is driven into the skin. In modern times this is done by injecting the skin through an electric needle. The needle is hollow in the center and the ink flows through it. Most artists use a single needle when applying black outlines. They use a tool with multiple needles when inserting the colors between the lines. This is done because the colors do not need to be injected quite as deep as the black ink.
Modern man has taken body decoration to a whole new level with body paints. Artists who work in this medium will paint part of a person with non-permanent paint. It is washed away at the end of an event or the end of the day. While many people are demure and prefer to only have some parts of their body painted, there are those who are willing to go much further. Today there are artists who will paint a person's entire body. These artists are highly talented and their canvas is people.
Since man first discovered the ability to create different colors from items found in their environment, art has been progressing. There are many ways art is expressed. Painting, sculpting, pottery and ceramics are a few ways artists have achieved great beauty. Now, artists have chosen the ultimate canvas for their work in the form of the human body. There is no way to predict what the future holds in this artistic arena.
