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GREENSBORO — The very nature of a swimsuit leaves plenty of skin out in the open.

And at the Community Swim Association's 2009 City Championship at Lindley Pool on Thursday, those open spaces were put to good use as many swimmers walked around — and swam — with a multitude of artistic decorations and slogans scrawled all over their bodies.

In some cases the markings were strictly for an organizational purpose. With many younger kids competing in the morning session, there were plenty of swimmers walking around with event numbers such as "89" or "91" on their bodies, and perhaps a name, too, so it would be easier to track them down for each race.

Not a bad idea, either, since getting all the kids lined up in order and onto the pool deck was a full-time job in itself.

But that was merely the beginning of the ink on display.

Many teams went with a consistent phrase, such as the Ridgewood Riptide's "Ride the Tide" — accompanied by a rather large wave drawing that took up a large portion of the young swimmers' backs.

Others went for the comical intimidation factor — "Eat my bubbles."

"BOOM BOOM POW," no doubt taken from the Black Eyed Peas' latest hit song, was a staple for swimmers from Greensboro Elks Lodge.

"You try to get as much on them as possible. You can't have anything mean or anything like boo &ellipses; but, it's fun," Greensboro Elks intern coach Caroline Creech said.

But the Friendly Frogs easily took the artistic crown thanks to some parental help. Throughout the day, team members could be spotted wearing an extremely well-drawn frog image on their backs.

Those creations were the product of one Naomi Jones, a mother on the Friendly team who is as an artist and also teaches art at Murphey Traditional Academy.

Jones saw a friend doing it before, and her work Thursday was in high demand in the Friendly tent area.

"Probably a dozen today. And I'm not done yet," she said during the middle of the day. "This girl over here wants one, too."

The frogs took about five minutes apiece, using five markers, and Jones lamented that she didn't have a light green color.

"They line up, and in between events I try to squeeze in as many as I can," she said. "And the girls want them with eyelashes, and the boys want them with top hats or crowns."

Judging by the reaction, she might have some work on her hands next year when the City Meet rolls around.

"I think we're actually going to try to get her to do the T-shirt next year because we like it so much," said Daniel Coughlin, who is one of the Friendly coaches.

But while the young swimmers were tops in the ink department, some of the coaches certainly took home the costume category.

Greensboro Elks Lodge led the way with an amusing split of superheroes. The intern coaches directed their swimmers while dressed as The Incredibles, while the head coaches posed as the Ninja Turtles — shells included.

"We just thought of superheroes, we thought that would be cool — good costumes," said Creech, who put her hair literally straight up for the occasion.

Grandover coach Ben Humphrey went with the green face paint, dyed hair and a gold crown, while Josh Cates sported a similar look but opted for the triangle-shaped pirate hat.

"We did this last year just to change things up a bit," said Humphrey, who added that it makes things fun for the kids swimming.

And while the Greensboro Elks get-up was a unified effort, you could call Grandover's a bit more random.

"We just kind of went to Party City, found the hat that we liked the best," Cates said.

Contact Jesse Baumgartner at 373-7071 or jesse.baumgartner@news-record.com