Scores of painted bicyclists made the ultimate sacrifice for their art on Saturday when they bared their skin for the brush and spray-can at the Fremont Solstice Parade.
Although the parade celebrates the coming of summer, the temperatures hovered in the upper 50s and a windy drizzle swept off the Puget Sound.
In such conditions, even two coats of body paint won't keep a person warm.
More than a hundred Painted Cyclists participated in the parade this year, in spite of the chilly weather. The painted cyclists have been a fixture at the parade hosted by the Fremont Arts Council for many years, and a lack of sun for the parade wasn't going to hold them back.
Cold all day
I talked to one cyclist who was slipping into some clothes as she shivered at the end of the ride. She admitted to being cold all morning.
Her group of cyclists met up at the Hale's Ale in Ballard for the body painting at 7:30 Saturday morning. When they finished up, they rode a couple of loops around Ballard before leading the parade through Fremont.
The riding didn't help to make them any warmer. If anything, riding through the mist made them colder.
While many quickly dressed at the finish, others did seem impervious to the cold and enjoyed the beautiful Seattle weather in their natural, bare, goose-bumply flesh.
They all had a good cleaning to look forward to.
The Solstice Cyclists website says it takes about 30 minutes of scrubbing to wash off the paint, more if there are some hairy patches. The website also recommends using a filter over the drain so the paint chips don't clog the plumbing.
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