From the Dept. of Good Health & Safety Practices – as applied to using Oil Paints...

Clearly, I have been going about painting pictures in the wrong manner...

(Source: http://www.odditycentral.com/videos/indian-artist-paints-with-his-tongue.html)

Indian Artist Paints with His Tongue

By Sumitra on March 6th, 2012 Category: Art, Videos

Now here’s a hobby that’s bound to leave a bad aftertaste. Ani K, from Kerala, India, makes paintings using his tongue. No, he doesn’t hold a paintbrush with his tongue, as I mistakenly believed at first. He actually slathers paint on it, which he then transfers on to canvas to create beautiful images. Sounds rather gross to me, but the talent is certainly something to behold. Ani K, who works as a drawing teacher, says he was inspired by an artist who painted with his foot and wanted to do something like that. He started off using his nose, but he realized that was done before and he wanted something unique. That’s when he zeroed in on his tongue. “I thought of giving my tongue a try and succeeded,” he says. “Many newspapers reported it. I got a good response. Then, I made it a regular practice.”

As you might have guessed, tongue-painting is certainly nothing like candy-tasting. Ani used to suffer from severe headaches and body aches at first, due to the chemicals and the smell of paint. Sometimes he even had nausea. But he wouldn’t give up on his unique technique, and now he’s become immune to the side effects. Now, he can finish a painting in about 3 to 4 days. The paintings he has made so far include those of famous Indian personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru and many others. An eight-foot-long painting of the Last Supper took him about 5 months to complete. Ani’s students are so in awe of what he does that they want to learn the art from him, so he teaches them as well. As much as I love art and appreciate Ani’s work, I think I’ll pass.

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Please DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! 

Unless you are trying to pull off a full-on Van Gogh. Severe head and body aches, indeed...

Thomas