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UPN 45 PRESENTS
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UPN 45 PRESENTS
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Welcome to the UPN-45 "Rage In The Cage" bodypainting webpage. This bodypainting was for the ring girls for the August 7th 2004 Rage In The Cage event held at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix, Arizona. The event was taped to air on UPN-45 television station.
Melissa Sweeney, promotion writer/producer for UPN 45 here in Phoenix, was given the task of gaining the attention of a younger, more "hip" viewing audience for the television station. She pitched the idea of having the ring girls in body paint for the live taping of Rage in the Cage and somehow talked her boss into giving her the green light on the project. Melissa contacted her friend Leslie who had done bodypainting projects at Alice Cooperstown Restaurant. Leslie signed on to do the project. O.K. So one night I'm kicking back watching the ballgame and my friend Don Crossland calls from Sonik Magazine and says there is someone there that wants to talk to me. He puts Leslie on the phone and she tells me that she is going to be painting the ring girls for the UPN Rage in the Cage on Saturday. Don had shown her my website and she asked me if I wanted to paint one of the two girls and she would paint the other. Obviously I did! Arriving at the Dodge Theater, Leslie and I were given the V.I.P. treatment as we were escorted to the backstage dressing rooms. The models arrived shortly thereafter and both were surprised to learn what this assignment had in store for them. They realized that there was going to be bodypainting involved, but they were not made aware that they would be topless in front of the packed auditorium and the countless others in the television viewing audience. Leslie was able to coerce them by showing them the poloroid picture from the practice bodypainting she had done the previous night on Leslie. I also had my portfolio along with me to show them some of my previous bodypaintings. Once the models Jennifer and Danielle were on-board with the idea, they were awesome to work with. They are managed by CEG agency and can often be seen as the professional dancers at Scottsdale's upscale nightclub, Axis-Radius. Also joining the artistic team for this project was make-up artist Tara Sissel from the Parlor in Scottsdale. Tara gave the girls a very colorful and glittery make-up and brought the blue and purple wigs to top off the look. I think the wigs were a real hit, but it is a shame that you don't get to see Danielle's beautiful auburn curls and Jennifer's long blonde California hair. Pictured here are Tara, Melissa, and Leslie.
Once it was showtime, Jennifer and Danielle were joined by several models from Arizona Dreamgirls, who would also be taking turns at being ring girls, but who had "real" tops on instead of just paint. After all of the fighters were introduced to the packed crowd all of the ring girls took a trip around the ring to the tune of hooting and hollering from the cage fighting fans. Jennifer was the model that I painted and who was wearing the blue wig was the first ring girl for fight number one. She strutted around the stage holding up the round one card and sporting a painted-on UPN 45 tank top and the words "Get It On" painted on her lower back. Everything was going great. Time out, sports fans. This is where the story takes a sad turn for artistic freedom. Someone from the network decided that bodypainting was a little too risqué. Jennifer and Danielle were instructed to put on shirts for the rest of the night. Unfortunately I didn't get any good photos of them in the ring before they were covered, but here is a shot of them with the Arizona Dreamgirls and one shot of Jennifer in the ring later in the evening.
I guess there are a few of you who have found this webpage hoping to find out something about the actual Rage in the Cage event and can't believe that I can ramble on so long about painting some ring girls. Well the truth of the matter is that this was the first time I had ever been to one of these events. This was apparently Rage in the Cage number 64 and I do know that the last two fights were actually title fights. As the night progressed, I must admit that I was glued to the action and the culmination of a knock-out punch the end the night was awesome. Below are two shots that I took of the winner of this fight, Homer Moore. Also below that you will find the results of the other fights from the evening. RITC 64 - Results
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Results:
Fight #1 |
If you are interested in ordering a print from this photoshoot or would like additional information on bodypainting, please feel free to contact mark@futureclassx.com and visit my website at www.futureclassx.com . Thanks for visiting!
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