72. Bike Week body paint model at Cabbage Patch outside NSB strikes a pose

Headline Surfer photo / Is she for real? That's what the Bike Week crowd kept asking at the Cabbage Patch in Samsula.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Those who walked by a vendor tent for helmet art work at the Cabbage Patch in Samsula during Bike Week wondered if the life-like figure in body paint was the real thing.

Few dared to ask and those who did didn't get an answer.

Only with a sharp eye or a strong camera lens could see that this was a living, breathing creature, whose beauty was accentuated by the flourescent green paint. With little in the way of actual clothes and a lot to be left to the imagination, 38-year-old Sophia Smith was a head turner. And she's No. 72 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

Only with a sharp eye or a strong camera lens could see that this was a living, breathing creature, whose beauty was accentuated by the flourescent green paint. With little in the way of actual clothes and a lot to be left to the imagination, 38-year-old Sophia Smith was a head turner.

"I've been taking classes," she said of the artwork and learning how to pose where it looks like she isn't beathing. "You just relax and get your mindset."

Only with a sharp eye or a strong camera lens could see that this was a living, breathing creature, whose beauty was accentuated by the flourescent green paint. With little in the way of actual clothes and a lot to be left to the imagination, 38-year-old Sophia Smith was a head turner.

"I've been taking classes," she said of the artwork and learning how to pose where it looks like she isn't beathing. "You just relax and get your mindset."

The two days of standing in the hert sun with little shade put a few bucks in her pocket and most of all, gave her more confidence that perhaps some day she could make a living modeling like this.

At 5 feet 3 and 136 pounds, Smith had more than her share of guys and even some gals checking out her assets. With some comments made to try and trick her, Smith said she takes her mind to another place and tunes them out for as much as an hour at a time. After all, she was being paid to stand and let those passing by to wonder: Is she real?

"My motto is I have one body, one life," said Smith of Jasper, Ga., where she is a hairdesser amd mother of three." And while others like what they see, Smith understands that inner beauty is what matters most.

"I've always used my brain and my heart," she said.

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