Cinta Tort Cartró, known as Zinteta online, has always loved creating art, but she recently started using humans as her main canvas.
The 21-year-old artist, who hails from a small town in Spain, says this experiment with form started a few months ago.
In a short amount of time, it’s made her internet-famous in the best way.
One of her first subjects? Herself. One day while sitting in her apartment, she decided to take a brush and some paint to her stretch marks.
The result was a glorious rainbow explosion, and it had a profound impact on the way Zinteta saw her own body.
For the first time, she no longer saw her stretch marks as flaws.
It got her thinking about the pressures society puts on women and their bodies.
She decided to paint stretch marks on other women, hoping to spread her message of self-acceptance far and wide.
As an elementary school teacher, Zinteta has a front-row seat for the effect of messages girls get during their formative years — and how we might be better able to empower them.
Her work is speaking to women of all ages, all backgrounds, all sizes, and all ethnicities.
Oh — and moms! Moms are absolutely loving Zinteta’s gorgeous creations.
It’s no secret that pregnancy and childbirth frequently leave behind “battle scars.” They can become a source of embarrassment for many moms, but Zinteta hopes she can convince women to see them differently.
“These stretch marks speak about something that is precious: bringing someone to the world,” she says in an email.
Stretch marks don’t only come from major changes in weight or pregnancy. They’re a normal part of growing and living life.
Oh, and by the way, guys can get them too.
If anything, stretch marks are simply a sign that you’re a living, breathing human.
“I think it’s important to accept all of you,” Zinteta told the BBC.
It’s a lesson that’s taken her a while to learn. She admitted in an interview with Metro that she suffered from anorexia as a teenager and never felt like her body was good enough.
Her art has helped her heal, and she’s hoping it can do the same for others.
So far, it has.
“People send me lovely messages and photos about their stretch marks,” she says.
Some of her fans are even painting their bodies at home as part of their journey to love themselves fully.
Zinteta is happy to be a part of what she calls, a “revolution.”
Accepting ourselves for exactly who we are? That’s a revolution that’s far, far overdue.
