"Nothing says 'I love my team' like slathering blue all over your upper half," says Amanda Cohen, who has been painting faces and torsos professionally for about 12 years. "I say if you're going to go all the way, get a professional so you can avoid things like ugly crusty spots or unpainted areas around the armpits."
For those who love too much, Amanda recommends a paint called Snazaroo, available at art supply stores or online. The water-based paint comes in dozens of shades, "so it's easy to match your team's colors. You're not going to find exact Pantone matches, but it will be close enough."
"The people who slather their entire upper body don't seem to care what they use, but you can tell when they use cheap stuff because it clumps and streaks and wears off in their creases," she says. "That kind of coverage would take way too long with greasepaint, so I'd recommend Snazaroo in the 18ml size and a damp sponge to apply it all over.
"Get a friend to do your back," she says. "If you show up with a bare back, we all know you're alone."
Meanwhile, the ultimate body-painting team, the Blue Man Group, uses a theatrical grease paint made by Mehron and available through Alcone stores ( www.alconeco.com), says Paul Ackerman, the group's general manager of production. "It takes about an hour for the guys to get 'bold and blue' " Ackerman says, "bold and blue" being the troupe's term for game ready.
"My costume was mostly limited to clothing I had purchased from local stores," says my nephew, who favored the simplest route. "I easily found face paint intended for Halloween costumes at local party stores."
Billy confesses that his face-painting days have mostly passed, even if his passion for the Gators lives on.
Yet, look at him in that photo . . . confident, committed and a little drippy. Thanks to patriots like him, the next generation of real fans is picking up foam scepters and Nerf shields and marching to the front lines.
Don't you envy him just a little bit? There is quirky spectacle here, a calling . . . a little bit Don Quixote, a little bit John Belushi. These guys are a Seth Rogen movie waiting to happen.
I say march onward, superheroes. And don't come home till you've showered.
In the meantime, I'm not eating a thing till the Dodgers finally sign Manny Ramirez. Hey, somebody has to do something.
Erskine's Man of the House column appears Saturday in the Home section.
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chris.erskine@latimes.com
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Super Bowl XLIII
PITTSBURGH VS. ARIZONA
Feb. 1 in Tampa, Fla.
at Raymond James Stadium 3 p.m. PST, Channel 4
