Yes, you did read that correctly: bonkers as it sounds, I am among a growing band of women who have had a go at painting with my boobs.
And I don’t mean in the comfort of my own home, either – I mean in a room full of complete strangers I had never met before.
I first came across the concept when I was invited to women’s wellness retreat RestFest, a day-long festival in Worthing, West Sussex, aimed at giving busy women a day off with a host of relaxing and inspiring activities in the tranquil setting of a converted manor house and barns.
The event featured a plethora of workshops and classes, from learning the art of facial massage as an alternative to botox to mask painting led by a psychotherapist (to find out more see Helen over at RelaxYaSelf to Health’s post here). Oh, and painting with your boobs.
Designed to promote body confidence and acceptance, boob printing workshops are popping up all over the country – even the Real Housewives of Cheshire have had a go – and RestFest’s offering was run by ‘unapologetic body acceptance coach’ Harri Rose and Anti-Diet Riot Club founder Becky Young.
They’ve been running the workshops for the last year in a bid to challenge the idea we’re sold one image of what the ‘perfect’ pair of boobs should look like and empower women to celebrate theirs – imperfections and all.
Now, obviously I’m not a real housewife of Cheshire – I’m just a knackered mum of three whose boobs have seen far better days following a combined total of six years breastfeeding – but I am immensely proud of the three babies they have single-handedly fed and nourished.
So, what the hell? After a day learning all sorts of new things at RestFest, like how to make my own body scrub with Himalayan salt and sugar, I felt empowered to give it a go!
So what’s it all about?
The theory is that we are all perfectly imperfect and the diversity of our boobies is what makes them so glorious. There is no such thing as too small, too big, too wonky, too saggy, all nipple or not enough nipple, and the boob printing workshop is all about celebrating that.
What actually happens?
We were encouraged to get ‘into the zone’ of being at one with our bodies by closing our eyes, taking some deep breaths and placing our hands on our boobies (not in that kind of way though). We were encouraged to feel them, be aware of them and embrace them.
Paper and paint was already laid out in front of us and we were given a demonstration by Becky, who showed us how to apply the paint to our boobies (you start from the bottom up) before printing them onto the paper.
There’s a knack to it – standing up and bending over the paper before pressing it to your chest works best – and it wasn’t long before we were all covered in paint and nervous giggles had turned into fits of laughter.
In honour of the fact I have just stopped breastfeeding for what will probably be the last time I painted a pink heart on each boob to represent the nurturing they have done, surrounded by blue. I then printed them three times on paper – one for each baby – before going a bit mad with the glitter (now’s probably a good time to reveal I failed A level art!!)
What did I learn?
It’s a lot of fun – but there’s also a serious side. The lady next to me tearfully admitted to the group that we had seen more of her boobs during the workshop than her husband had in the last year – and she now felt empowered to change that. Which is quite something when you think about it.
Would I do it again?
Yes! Sloshing paint over my lady bits was quite liberating – and I’m rather proud of my finished art work too!
Have you ever taken part in any unusual workshops? Would you take part in a boob printing one? I’d love to know!
I was gifted entry to RestFest Wellness Festival where I took part in the boob printing workshop. All opinions are my own and based on my own honest experience, and huge thanks to Paloma from Photography by Paloma for capturing the workshop so discreetly and giving me permission to use her images. To find out more about the next RestFest event in October 2019 and other events like it click here.
Loved reading your experience of this. Thanks for including me, too!
Well this is a new one for me, never heard of such a thing, don’t think I will be trying it! #blogginggoodtime@_karendennis
I don’t know whether to laugh or applaud you. It sounds totally crazy, but so much fun and your finished piece of art is fantastic. We should all celebrate our bodies in some way, the more fun the better.
#bloggingoodtime
Fair play to you! What a wacky idea but it sounds like fun (I think) haha. Not sure I would be able to brave it and have a go though.
Have a lovely weekend and Mother’s Day. x #MMBC
I LOVE this post so much, and I love the idea of this workshop it is something I think I would do so I may have to see if there is something like this in Melbourne. I have a very up and down relationship with my boobs. I remember being a teen and wishing they hadn’t grown so fast, but I soon began to like having them. I have always had boobs that receive a lot of compliments from men and women as I can go braless and oddly they do not sag given I am a D cup they probably should. So aesthetically they are lovely, but I also hate them for other reasons and have had to try and overcome that. They have attracted unwanted comments and attention and the hardest thing for me was my struggle to breast-feed. I wanted so badly to be a breastfeeding mum, and in ways I was. When Aspen was born she was straight on the breast and it was the most amazing experience. She latched on perfectly, but after days we realised she was starving despite being almost constantly on the breast. My milk had still not come in, I only produced around 20 to 30 mls they had me admitted to the mother Baby Unit where I saw expert lactation consultants, spoke to the psychologist, went on medication to try and increase my milk, took natural remedies also, and expressed etc. Still I have never felt the ‘let down’ of breastmilk. I fed Aspen for 13 months what i could, then had to follow with what little I could pump and then formula. It broke my heart. I hoped it would be different 2nd and 3rd time, but no sadly my breasts could not produce enough milk to sustain a healthy baby. My boobs never changed during pregnancy, nor after, size, shape everything remained the same. I felt so betrayed by my body, I didn’t care what they looked like, what was the point of them if I couldn’t even feed my babies. I didn’t want boobs just to be a sexual object or to look nice in clothes. I even started to dislike my husband looking at them as they felt useless. It was a very emotional time for me and still I do feel a sadness over not getting to full feed my children they way I felt they deserved. I know logically that it is OK, they are 14, 11 and 9 now and all healthy, well adjusted, and intelligent children, formula is truly a lifesaver for my children, but in my heart I feel like I didn’t give them the best start to life health wise. I am more ok with it now than I was then, but if I tell the truth, it still hurts. Anyway thanks for letting me dump all that on you, clearly something i still need to work through! Beautiful post though, I think it is an amazing and empowering idea and so many women need this! Well done and you should be so proud of yourself. Thanks so much for sharing this post with us for #ABloggingGoodTime
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