Nuba - body painting

Body painting, or sometimes bodypainting, is a form of body art. Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most (in the case of Mehndi or "henna tattoo") a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting. Body painting is also referred to as (a form of) temporary tattoo; large scale or full-body painting is more commonly referred to as body painting, while smaller or more detailed work is generally referred to as temporary tattoos.

Nuba is a collective term used here for the peoples who inhabit the Nuba Mountains, in Sudan, Africa. Although the term is used to describe them as if they composed a single group, the Nuba are multiple distinct peoples and speak different languages. Estimates of the Nuba population vary widely; the Sudanese government estimated that they numbered 1.07 million in 2003.

Leni Riefenstahl, better known for directing Triumph of the Will and Olympia, published a collection of her photographs of the peoples titled The Last of the Nuba in 1976.

Awarded Australian born photographer Jack Picone also photographically documented the lives of the Nuba people between 1994 - 1998. The series of images called "The Nuba" can be seen online here: http://www.jackpiconeportfolio.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=2

The Nubians (Arabic: نوبي‎ Nūbī) are an ethnic group originally from northern Sudan, and southern Egypt now inhabiting North Africa .

The Nubian people in Sudan inhabit the region between Wadi Halfa in the north and Aldaba in the south. The main Nubian groups from north to south are the Halfaweyen, Sikut, Mahas, and Danagla. They speak different dialects of the Nubian language.

In ancient times Nubians were depicted by Egyptians as having very dark skin, often shown with hooped earrings and with braided or extended hair. Ancient Nubians were famous for their vast wealth, their trade between Central Africa and the lower Nile valley civilizations, including Egypt, their skill and precision with the bow, their 23-letter alphabet, the use of deadly poison on the heads of their arrows, their great military force, their advanced civilization, and their century-long rule over the united upper and lower Egyptian kingdoms.