Hey Zephyr, thanks for joining us. We had this questions come up earlier and this was a response from Bertrum, who does a lot of airbushing:

Response from Bertrum regarding air brushing and his camp, the Body Art Guild at Burning Man. Thanks for your response! I'm excited!

Hi Jonesy,

Saw your post on the Body Art tribe.

So, time to learn airbrush body painting.
It ain't that tough.
You already do body art, so it's just the technique of airbrushing.

First, and important, You only spray folks at 20 PSI or less. If you spray someone at more than 20 PSI, you can inject air into people's skin. That gives them the same problem as scuba divers, the bends.
Not a good idea.

Using FDA approved body paint's also a good idea. Most folks don't have much trouble with acrylic's but when they do........ Can be nasty.

The basics of airbrush can be picked up from a book, and a half day of practice/play.
The recent issue of Airbrush Action had a couple of good articles you'd want to read. One was on Trouble Shooting airbrush problems. The other was on doing the Soft Dagger Stroke.

One big issue for folks it to turn on the air.
Then start the paint.
Stop the paint.
Then back off the air.

I've been doing airbrush body painting for the past 4 years now. And really only a few weeks a year.
Yet when I entered one competition, I placed in the top 10.

You can go to the Face & Body Paint Convention they have each year. They have Airbrush classes each year. Kind of expensive. I went one year, and frankly, wasn't impressed. I didn't learn squat.

There are also classes that Airbrush Action offers. They don't offer body painting, but the skills of airbrush can then be done on human flesh.

Meantime, We at the Black Rock Body Art Guild are in a scramble. This will be our 4th year on the playa. The first year we got next to a plaza, and a friend was on the plaza, so he let us tap into the power grid on the plaza. Without power for the aircompressors, we can't do airbrush.
The last two years we were on the grid, (CC or Plaza).
Well, this year, we apparently didn't rate. We are just across the street from the grid of Center Camp.
So, right now, we ain't doing airbrush.
We need a generator, and it ain't looking like we can get one for us. Our paint budget was $2000 last year. And we already bought for this year. So the $$ are tapped out.

Otherwise, I'd say get an airbrush, and get on over to the Body Art Guild and we'd give you air, and get you started.

Keep Smiling,
Bertrum
Black Rock Body Art Guild
Anxious and Wheel of Fortune, (But no airbrush this year).