Mae West's mantra, 'It is better to be looked over than overlooked', is the driving force behind many Sevens costumes - some of which take months of planning. Among the best, though, are looks created in the stadium by Catriona Finlayson, who has received multiple awards internationally, including UK Face and Body Festival Face Painter of the Year.
Her involvement is at the behest of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF). Finlayson began busying herself with her brushes at the Sevens when she lived here. Now that she lives in Norwich, England, the HKYAF flies her in every year.
Over the past six years, Finlayson confesses she's had some pretty unusual requests from fans. 'I've painted an American football helmet on a bald chap, Amy Winehouse tattoos and a full-body pink tiger. Not to forget several red and white Avatars with Hong Kong bauhinias and loads of blue Avatars. One Avatar came back to tell me he felt like a Pied Piper as people kept following him all day taking photos. He'd come along with the wig and the skirt and just needed to be painted.'
Finlayson's body of work for the Sevens also includes a Rambo and, at the other end of the spectrum, a man who wanted to be made into a sparkly pink statue with gold drips. 'A hairy Welshman asked for a full-torso dragon, and [another] hairy masculine young man, [who] must have been metrosexual... asked me to transform him into a flowery-butterfly Hawaiian hula-girl.'
Painting bodies not only takes concentration, it also requires a sense of humour and there have been several moments that have made Finlayson smile.
'One year, I was asked by a whole team of young, fit men to paint their torsos as if they [were wearing] Hong Kong rugby team shirts. They came back to tell me that many people had teased them about their shirts being too tight. They looked so real. They had rubbed off patches to show bare skin around their nipples so that people realised it was paint.'