Meet 21-year-old artist who turns stretch marks and PERIOD stains into striking rainbow-coloured artworks ~ Crown Gist

Meet 21-year-old artist who turns stretch marks and PERIOD stains into striking rainbow-coloured artworks

An artist has put taboo topics at the heart of her work in a bid to promote self-love among young women.

Spanish artist Cinta Tort Cartró, 21, creates striking multi-coloured artworks inspired by underwear stained with menstrual blood and stretch marks, in her efforts to encourage women to see their perceived ‘flaws’ as beautiful.

The artist, from Torrelles de Llobrega, who has suffered with body image issues herself, embarked on a project tackling the taboo around menstruation, entitled: ‘I’m not disgusted by my stains’.

So the qualified teacher, who pursues art as a hobby, began to create rainbow-coloured stain-like patterns on underwear with bright paint and glitter for the project around seven months ago.

Several of her works, created on models, are meant to depict menstrual blood flowing down a woman’s leg.

Others depict in bright colours a representation of the thing she was most afraid would happen to her – bleeding onto her clothes during her period.

Cinta told metro.co.uk: ‘I remember that in school the idea of staining a chair with blood made me panic, I was terrified about what people would think.

‘I decided to paint people’s underwear to make it clear that sometimes stains happen – and nothing happens.’

The brave artist, who suffered from anorexia as a teenager, explained how she believes it is crucial society breaks down its unrealistic aesthetic standards.

Cinta believes these warped standards – such as women being expected not to have any stretchmarks – need to be re-thought in order for women to be happy.

She said: ‘Over the years, I saw that if I did not accept everything about my body – hair, stretch marks, etc – I was not accepting myself, and I could never really know or love myself. ‘

Cinta incorporated tampons into her project on menstruation, painting them in multiple colours and turning them into a wall installation.

As a part of a woman’s life on her period, Cinta sees tampons as nothing to be ashamed of or unnecessarily kept hidden.

Both her menstrual and stretchmark artworks have garnered positive attention on social media, where her Zinteta account now has nearly 25,000 followers.