Game Of Thrones Inspired Body Painting

Game Of Thrones Inspired Body Painting

2013-08-13 13:41 | Comments: 0

Cosplayer Diana Barbieri tells us a little bit about herself and the cool Game of Thrones body painting, which she did together with body painter Marco Dominici for the Unicorn Festival 2013.

Photo credit: Viki Secrets

Game of Thrones Body Painting. Model Diana Barbieri. Body Painter Marco Dominici @ Unicorn Festival 2013 Festa dell'Unicorno

Hi, cosplayer Diana Barbieri and body painter Marco Dominici participated together at the body painting contest of the Unicorn Festival 2013 and placed second with this cool Game of Thrones inspired body painting :P Congrats!

Xena and I were at the Unicorn Festival again, and since we are both Game of Thrones fans, we chatted with them and asked Diana for a short interview :)

Hi Diana, please introduce yourself briefly ...

I'm an average girl with many interests. My first cosplaying experience has been when I was 15, but as I experienced in the last years a bad change in cosplayers' attitude and spirit, too often oriented on the competition and to the "make them envy you" spirit, more than on the amusement of being the favorite superhero for one day, I decided to try something different. I created a bucket list, like "A hundred things I'd like to do before I die". And one of those things was "To be a body painting model for once". Then I met my body painter, Marco Dominici, and we started our collaboration.

How did you come up with the Game of Thrones body paint idea?

"Collaboration" is a good word, because usually the body painter decides everything, he is the artist, the model is just a piece of living paper, and she doesn't have anything to do with the project creation. Sometimes the body painter and the model meet up for the first time in the fair, and the model doesn't know what the artist will paint on him/her.

That's not our case.

We developed the theme together, as we always do, and we searched for something we both liked. The contest was in a medieval fair in Vinci town, and the contest theme was "Fantasy Adventure". The organizers said: "For us the theme development is more important than the execution itself, because of the fair that is around us".

So, as I'm kind of a nerd :D I thought: "ok, let's do something popular, that every person in the fair can recognize and that any body painter wouldn't think to do".

We had an advantage: we knew fantasy. Other body painters just choose to do "an elf" or "a nymph", relying on vague, classic themes and that helped us, because every single element in our body painting was studied to make other people understand the dynamics behind the TV series and books.

Oh cool :D Please tell us which flags did you wear on your body and does their placement have a special meaning?

My body was split between fire and ice (do you remember the original name of the series? It's "a song of ice and fire..."), so every flag had to go on its natural element, first of all.

Game of Thrones Body Painting. Model Diana Barbieri. Body Painter Marco Dominici @ Unicorn Festival 2013 Festa dell'Unicorno

The Starks, The Baratheon, The Greyjoy are on ice. Because: The Starks claim is "Winter is coming", the Baratheon are their alleys and are against the Lannister and Targaryen, who obviously belong to fire. The Greyjoy are "cold", iron people, and come from the north as well, so, ice to them.

Lannisters are fire. Their flag is a lion, a symbol of fire, that's why. Targaryen ... Well, do I really have to explain it? :D Fire and blood ...

Finally the Arryn, we don't know much about them but to put them on the fire has been a one-way choice for the background color of their flag.

On my back we had Arryn on the fire (blue symbol on black flamed background) and Greyjoy (black symbol on blue iced background). Just perfect! :D

For the position, obviously we had Stark on one arm, Lannisters opposite to the other one.

On my legs, Baratheon against Targaryen.

The Martell symbol (from the books) is between ice and fire, on my belly, because they don't belong neither to the ice, nor to the fire. Their symbol contains a sun, so we decided that "the sun is symbol of life, and in human body the navel can be considered the center of it, because life begins when you cut the umbilical cord, right?", and so, my belly was the perfect location!

Game of Thrones Body Painting. Model Diana Barbieri. Body Painter Marco Dominici @ Unicorn Festival 2013 Festa dell'Unicorno

For the Dothraki, as they don't use flags in the battles, I got my shoulders painted like them and on my hands and face I had fake blood (like in Daenerys scene when she ate the raw heart) and tears (from when she lost Khal Drogo). The blood starts from Lannister and Stark flags to reach the hands, because their families are the bloodiest ones (so many losses!).

Then, as for accessories, a shield with the Game of Thrones TV symbol and written on it "Valar Morghulis, Valar Dohaeris", that means "All men must die, but first we will live". It sounded like a protection spell for a shield :D

And then the medieval sword with the dragon symbol, and a belt with a smaller knife on my back.

Wow, that is really cool. Having gone through all the banners, I would like to know, which is your favorite house of Game of Thrones and why?

Ahahah, such a hard question!! I think that I'm a Stark, because of their strength and honor even in the worst situations ... It's easy to take the short way, it's easy to take the selfish one, but a Stark never does simply what's easier. They have honor and they love each other, they're a family. And a Stark NEVER wanted to be a king.

Do you plan to participate in another cosplay contest?

I'm moving to Asia soon for probably one year or more, so, if it would be, it would be there :D

Thanks, Diana for the chat and the detailed behind the scenes explanations. I wish you and Marco all the best for your future cosplay/body painting adventures and your Asian journey of course. Keep us updated.

Thank you, Viki!

Game of Thrones Body Painting. Model Diana Barbieri. Body Painter Marco Dominici @ Unicorn Festival 2013 Festa dell'Unicorno

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Model Diana Barbieri
Body Painter Marco Dominici

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