PAINTED SKIN

Hello All,

I’ve been quite on the blogs the last few weeks. I took a little break from writing and now I am back!

Staring with this All-New This is A True Story!

1998 was the first year I went to San Diego Comic Con (I had a great time). I’ve written about a few moments at different San Diego Shows, but have never written about this one – obviously.

This is a True San Diego Tale I call PAINTED SKIN.

This Tale barely involves me, and I don’t know the name of the woman – and never did – that it does directly involve. It took place in 1998 – my first year at San Diego. I was 24 and this young lady had to be around my age or younger.

I remember vividly this was Thursday, I arrived in San Diego and checked into a hotel that morning. I left all my stuff except for a bag I carried around with me, in my hotel room. This was my first time there and I wanted to look around before I started trying to talk to any publishers (I was trying to find writing work as well ).

There was a young girl I saw a few times, brunette, freaking gorgeous and apparently dressed like an anime character. Cosplay wasn’t really a big thing at the time – not like today – but people still dressed up as their favorite characters.

I had no idea who she was dressed like – and didn’t care really.

It was the second time I saw her, standing next to her at one of the booths that I had an ‘Oh Shit!’ moment.

She was wearing tight blue spandex pants, blue paint over her torso and upper body and a white strip of paint over her shoulders and down over her breasts and nipples.

YES! She was not wearing any clothing up top – only body paint.

WOW. I said Hi, she smiled and that was it. She was with a friend and they left the booth together.

I wondered how in the Hell they let her into the convention with just body paint over her upper body and breasts. To be honest though, I wasn’t complaining.

I went about on my way, spending too much money and have a good time finding lots of great stuff. It was hard not to notice her a few more times – she stood out the way she was dressed/not-dressed, and she seemed very shy as well.

Unfortunately, many guys weren’t as shy as I was when it came to girls. She eventually ran into a group of jackasses that started harassing her, that took how she was dressed too far. Yeah, some jerks thought this meant they could try and get laid.

She didn’t take this moment well, and these guys wouldn’t stop. Her friend tried her best to help, but these guys wouldn’t stop.

Fortunately a couple of the actual comic creators – and I and a few others – stepped in and put an end to it. I had worn a thin windbreaker jacket, but didn’t need it. I let her have it to cover up.

She and her friend immediately went toward the lobby and left. Being a nice guy, doing the right thing, I followed them out – I was truly concerned those jerks would follow them, but they didn’t.

As I wrote above, this story didn’t really involve me, but I was there. Maybe she took it a little far with only body paint, but she didn’t deserve the jerks. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was this – she didn’t seem to get that the way she was dressed (body paint) is what got her all the attention.

I never did get my windbreaker back. 😝

Ace.