Halloween haunts China as popularity grows

A partygoer gets makeover from the British makeup and body-painting artist Nina Griffee.

"The weirdest thing I was ever asked to paint," Griffee says, "was not on a person, but a cricket."

She got the call because a cricket owner decided his show insect was the wrong color before its imminent movie role, and he'd heard about Griffee's face-painting skills.

"I just said no," she says, wincing at the memory.

"I said: 'Can't you just change the color digitally?' I really think paint would have harmed the cricket."

One Halloween client was a two-year-old girl, who wanted the artist to paint David Beckham on her bare leg.

"What did she say?" her perplexed father asked.

Griffee held up a photo of the soccer superstar and repeatedly asked: "You want this?"

The child insisted, Dad shrugged, and Griffee went to work.

"A lot of the year we spend a lot of time painting kids," the artist says, noting that she's painted more butterflies and tribal tattoos than she cares to remember.

"But on Halloween, it's OK for a grown-up to say: 'Hey, I want to be a skeleton.' Adults are free to turn into children for the weekend. It's a cool thing."