[island101]

About: Maddie, 30 years old from St. Louis, now lives in Los Angeles working for a travel magazine.

Story:
As my friends know, I work for an online travel magazine. My friends are always telling me how lucky I am since I get to travel to cool places as part of my job. Although I enjoy the travel, it’s still hard work.

I’m part of a team at the magazine that travels to locations all over the world. The magazine sets us up with accommodations and people to meet, places to see, tasks to do, etc. It is all pretty much laid out for us. There are always arguments about who goes where and does what, so the editors enacted a new process where the team members draw locations from a hat to make sure we each have the same chance of an assignment.

In this past round, one of the items was a trip to Tahiti. That is somewhere I’ve always want to go, so I was rooting for that assignment. Tahiti was one of the first items picked out of the hat, but unfortunately, I didn’t get it. What I got instead was a trip to Brazil to cover Carnival.

The magazine set me up with a woman named Sylvia who has a dance group that performed at Carnival every year. I was going to join her as a dancer and write about my experience. They also gave me a local photographer to take pictures for the article.

I flew into Rio and Sylvia met me at the airport. I noticed her right away as she would be hard to miss. She is about 5’8” and mostly legs and ass with beautiful dark skin. She’s exactly what you think about when you imagine beautiful Brazilian women.

After a quick stop at the hotel to drop off my stuff we went to her dance studio. For me to dance with her team, I had to show that I can learn the moves. Luckily for me I’ve had some dance training and was a cheerleader in high school, so learning the choreography wasn’t too difficult. It’s mostly just shaking your hips a lot. Sylvia was very patient and encouraging as she showed me the moves. I was a little worried about the dancing beforehand, but now that I knew I could do it I wasn’t worried anymore. I also met the photographer Luiz who showed up to take pictures of me practicing for the magazine.

A few days before the big event Sylvia brought me to get our costumes. I realized there wasn’t much to it as I tried it on. The top was mostly wire, not very comfortable and just barely covered my nipples and areolas. Actually, there were gaps in the wired top, so you could see hints of my bits. The bottom was nothing more than a high cut g-string. I knew that Brazilians were OK with showing their butts, but thought I’d be wearing more than this. Good thing I crossfit, so at least my body is in shape.

When I looked in the mirror I was worried because my tan lines were showing. Sylvia said not to worry because we would also be painted. It made me feel better that while I would be half naked, at least I would be “wearing” paint.
Once we were done with the fitting Sylvia took me down the block to a salon. She said we had to get waxed since we would be wearing skimpy costumes. Guess I was about to get an authentic Brazilian waxing.

We sat in the waiting room for a few minutes and then the waxer called Sylvia’s name and motioned for me to come with. Are group waxings normal in Brazil? Sylvia said she would go first and pulled down her shorts and underwear and hopped on the table like a pro. I tried to keep eye contact as I talked to Sylvia about Carnival. After her front was waxed she got on her knees and the waxer did the back end. Luckily, I was sitting near her head the whole time, so I didn’t see much.

After she was done the worker asked me to strip off my bottoms and climb on the table. I thought there was a chance Sylvia would leave when she was done, but then she started talking to the spa worker in Portuguese. Ok, we’re all girls here, so I pulled off everything from the waist down and assumed the position on the table. The worker started waxing and she and Sylvia continued to have a conversation. Once the waxer was close to done Sylvia moved down to inspect and critique. She pointed out a few areas that were missed, and when I say point I mean she came within about an inch of touching me to point it out. When the front was done I turned over and the waxer did my bottom as Sylvia watched intently to make sure she did a perfect job. I guess it’s good to have friends that have your back, or backside.

On the day of the event I met up with Sylvia and Luiz. Luiz drove the three of us to a nearby trailer where Sylvia’s group was getting ready. I was in for a little shock as we walked in the trailer. There weren’t any individual changing areas. All of the male and female dancers were in various states of undress. Lots of helpers and other workers walking about. They gave me my outfit which they had fitted after the day we tried them on. I saw an area in the trailer that was less inhabited and quickly went there and changed into my outfit. After years of changing in gym class I was decent at changing without showing much. Luiz had wandered away with Sylvia, so at least he didn’t see me changing.

I went and found Sylvia and she said they were ready to paint us. Our painter was a local artist named Raul who was about 50 years old. He had us spin around in our costumes so he could get a 360 degree look to come up with a color pattern that would work with our costumes.

Then he said he would paint me first. He started with my arms and legs, then Sylvia said I would have to strip off so he could get good coverage in case the costume shifted when I danced. I wasn’t expecting that, especially in a room full of strangers. Reluctantly I took my top off and he painted my torso and back. Luiz was standing by taking pictures of me being painted to document the experience for the magazine. I told him I hoped he is being cautious because although I know the magazine won’t publish naked pictures, I still don’t want them being sent to the magazine where my co-workers may see them. Luiz promises I didn’t have anything to worry about.

The paint dried quickly and I put my top back on. Then he told me to take off the bottoms. I was feeling a little bare after the Brazilian and swear I felt a breeze, even though we were indoors. I think there may have been windows open, so maybe I didn’t image it. He knelt down in front of me for a better view and sprayed my bare crotch to make sure I was covered in case the bottom moved. Then he asked me to turn around so he could spray the back. Because there wasn’t much of a back to my outfit he told me to spread my cheeks so he can make sure he didn’t miss anything. I bent over slightly and parted my cheeks so he could finish up. Man, that was ridiculous. The things I do for my “glamorous” job. My friends don’t think about this part of my job when they envy me.
Luiz and Sylvia were watching me get painted, but hopefully most of the strangers in the room were too busy to notice. I found out later that Raul is really a great and accomplished painter in Brazil. Somehow that made me feel a little better about the situation since he was an artist.

The day of Carnival was amazing and a lot of fun. I couldn’t believe the huge crowds of people. The article turned out great and the pictures the magazine included were mostly modest, but one showed my g-stringed butt. The editor asked if he could include it to show the cultural differences and I gave the OK. I never saw all of the pictures that were sent, so I’m hoping Luiz kept his word and only sent the modest ones.