Hi Pallas,
While we're at it, we can also ask about the significance of clothing colors and fashions in western Europe.
I'm being a little sarcastic here, but the short (AND long) answer on paint is, "it depends."
Here's a short list of things that body paint can symbolize, with examples from North American Indians:
1. Marital status (many tribes, also seen frequently in tattoos).
2. Social status (one example: higher class chumash had more complex designs on their bodies).
3. Sunscreen (to a minor extent: I'm thinking of good old-fashioned mud).
4. Social/unit cohesion (some of the crazy warrior groups of the plains)
5. "vision" (my favorite are the heyokas, but I'll be you can find a lot of these)
6. Ceremonial dress (see above).
7. And last but not least: pure, old-fashioned personal decoration.
Since my ancestors are European, I'm pretty sure that at least one of them stripped naked, painted himself blue, spiked his hair with a lime-based mixture, and went charging in to battle with spear and shield. I'm also quite sure that some of my more modern relatives paint their faces half green and half yellow, paint a weird sigil on their cheeks that looks like a G, and go to "the cathedral of Saint Vincent" (Lombardy that is) to watch the Green Bay Packers play American football on Saturday mornings in the fall. Same ritual, similar genes, different reasons.
As I said, the reason for wearing paint really depends on circumstances.
Best,
F
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