What would I need to do to successfully paint with my own menstrual blood?
What would I need to do to successfully paint with my own menstrual blood?
Too busy for my testosterone shot, might as well use the consequences.
Would there be anything I’d need to chemically treat it with? Ways to avoid smell? Or I’m I good just shoving a brush up there and going to town?
Friend did this for an art project, it didn't smell. Like all blood it dries to a kinda browny colour, but beyond that it was fairly unremarkable. The reactions from other people were certainly interesting though!
Most people that work with blood collect it and use it quickly. That's more difficult to do with menstruum. But, if you're willing to work at a slow enough pace, it's doable. I'm too lazy to go searching for it, but you wouldn't be the first person to do it
The issue with menstruum is that it isn't just blood. So you may need to use a mesh strainer if there's solids involved. You can't really paint or use it as ink with solids.
Once you've got enough to fill a brush, if you'll be painting, you just go to it. Blood as paint is very thin. Don't expect much coverage. Think really thin water color, and you'll approach the useful techniques. The pigment in blood that shows on paper is the red blood cells mostly, with plasma being what allows it to stick to the paper (and canvas is not great unless you have massive volumes to work with). If this was a long term project instead of making use of a limited supply, I'd say to dry it out, then grind it into a pigment to mix up as tempera tbh.
Anything you would mix in to the fresh supply is going to thin it out more; to the point that it won't show well at all. Luckily, it isn't going to smell once dry. You can then use your favorite spray fixative and call it done. It'll last as well as any other reactive pigment.
Menstrual Cup to retrieve the blood. I have no other tips tho.
That's it, enough Internet for me today.
Obviously let it dry first, then use fixative spray? Not that I'm an expert. Or make finding the preservation part of the artistic process. Alcohol? Lemon juice? Ashes? Lime?
edit: what are you planning to paint on?
BTW painters of centuries ago used lots of organic materials even from animals, might want to check out if they had some tips.
A Hobby Lobby canvas. Since Joann died and Micheals is far more expensive, I’m occasionally forced to resort to them. I make sure that a good portion of my art work is profane or has explicit political messaging to even out the karmic energy.
Side note: I knew a hippie woman years ago that fed her weed plants menstrual blood. Shared a joint with her and it was some good shit too.
Mix with egg whites to make gouache and it’s likely to last for hundreds of years.
Man, if I had enough money to buy eggs, I wouldn’t be making homemade paint.
It's going to turn a sickly brown-black color. I have some veinous blood on wall art and it honestly looks like dried ketchup at this point. I'm not sure what preservative would work though.
As others said, it's gonna be thin like watercolor. Maybe it can be mixed with ink?
I imagine you'd want to put a layer of clear acrylic or something on top of it
The concern there might be that it would rot underneath that acrylic. I’ve seen videos of things like hotdogs encased in epoxy that eventually spring leaks.
Maybe baking it would be a good idea. Something to sterilize, powder and mix into a binder.
I'd suggest something like alcohol, but im not an expert on blood painting
Dried blood and a fucking chunk of fresh food must surely behave differently.
S…senpai, I can’t believe you painted me using your own body.
Don't do this. Please.
This reminds me of the lead singer of Perfect Pussy (I think it was them). She used her blood in the mix to dye the vinyl records red.
Just get a paintbrush and hope for the best. Maybe mix it with some isopropyl alcohol.
I know someone who did this back in college, mostly as a prank. She found a product that was made specifically to collect menstrual blood. I'm not sure what it's called, but she described it as some sort of cup. There really wasn't much to it. She just collected it, then painted a simple picture, then gave it to a friend as a prank gift.