Hey guys, it’s Emma Vega and I’m a mental health specialist as well as a bodypaint model for Trina Merry. My favorite painting with Trina is definitely the boudoir photoshoot. Um, we found a amazing corset online and I was just so in love with it. And the only difference we made is she happened to make it my favorite color. Which was a really really special way to make that painting personal to me.

The moment of sharing doesn’t end with the photo shoot. There’s so much more that goes on after. When she posts on Instagram and you feel all the love from all her followers who are like “Oh my God that’s so amazing”. And if you’ve had a bad day there’s nothing like seeing um inspirational comments from women all around the world because Trina happens to have some of the best followers in terms of people who are just so positive. And if you’re feeling bad about yourself and you happen to do a project with her, the love that you feel after is just so immense. That, you know, is definitely something I would recommend.

At first, it’s scary. But not scary in a terrible, someones chasing you kind of way. Scary like about to get on a rollercoaster scary. Um because you don’t know how you’re going to feel through the process. But once you start, it’s incredibly liberating. You’re there and you forget. You forget all of the things that you put on yourself every day to hide the different pieces of you. And all of a sudden, you’re there. One hundred percent you, and you have no choice but to love yourself exactly as you are in that moment.

One of the things that I find when people ask me what I do and I tell them, I am a bodypaint model, is that they assume I’m in a club with a beer label painted across my chest. And that is not what I do at all. I’ve been in exhibits in the Whitney and it was amazing to be surrounded by art and also be part of art.

I love bodypaint because everything gets stripped away. One thing for me as a mental health specialist, I always look for ways for people to feel comfortable in their own skin. Um, I became a mental health specialist after years of battling my own mental health issues and depression. And one thing I find with bodypaint is that when you are standing there with another person, you are who you are to the core. There is nothing else on you, no clothes. You have a definition of yourself that you probably would never have because it’s just you stripped away. And not only that, you have no choice but to love yourself in that moment, exactly as you are and you can’t hide anything. You can’t, you can’t fake it. It’s not something you can fake or pretend. It’s just you, there in your barest of elements becoming something new and beautiful.