A Beauty of Cosplay: SayoNay

Whether it’s dressing up as your favorite anime character or comic book superhero, the artistic expression of cosplay comes in many forms. For SayoNay, she likes to transform herself with body paint into bold, colorful characters, which has earned her a mass following on social media.

Funny and quirky, SayoNay can outshine anyone in the darkest of days with her style and looks, which she pulls from the macabre and her Nigerian and Jamaican culture. Outside of cosplay, she currently works as a pharmacy technician at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and attends school for forensic pathology.

OFM had the opportunity to learn more about the woman behind the cosplayer. 

Can you begin by telling us how you fell into the world of cosplay and what makes it so special to you?

I was introduced to cosplay around 2013 when I was coming from John Hopkins one day and saw all these people wearing cosplays and costumes. I was like, “What is this?” People were dressed up as Naruto; people were dressed up as Sailor Moon, and I lost my mind because I love Sailor Moon (laughs). My favorite holiday is Halloween, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is like Halloween on speed.” I asked someone what was going on, and they said, “It’s for a convention called Otakon.”

I was actually dating someone at the time who was familiar with Otakon, and I was like, “How come you never told me this existed?” That was it after that. It opened my eyes to something brand new, and about a year later, I started cosplaying. However, when it comes to dressing up in costumes, that is something I always did, ever since I was a kid. Whether it was for Halloween, theatre, or dance, it has always been a part of me.

How would you describe your cosplay style and aesthetic?

My side is more so on the darker side of macabre. I love Afro-gothic, and I love bringing my Nigerian culture into my cosplays, so I try to do that as much as I can. I also love villainous characters because they are so much fun! Villains are so multi-dimensional, and they all have a backstory. For real people, I believe their backstories are much more relatable than heroes. We all go through trauma, and we can all be a villain depending on that certain situation. I believe I always related to villains because they always have such a colorful background explaining why they are the way they are. They could be vigilante or psychotic: it all depends.

Looking through your social media, I am amazed at some of the looks you have created. Where do you primarily pull inspiration from?

I usually pull inspiration from abstract art and childhood characters that I really gravitated towards, like Cartoon Network and anime. Anime has been my tried and true since I was in elementary school. I also love graphic novels and webtoons, and I think that’s really what blew up my cosplay page. My niece insisted that I make one, but I was like, “No one wants to see what I do. I don’t want all eyes to be on me.”

I also love doing things that you usually don’t see a lot of people do. I could be a Naruto character or a Sailor Moon character, but who would ever think of being Oblina from Ahh Real Monsters? Like, that’s awesome!

When thinking about your looks, is there one that always stands out in your mind?

That is always such a hard question, but I would say, the biblically accurate angels. I wouldn’t classify myself as religious, but I do have a Christian background so to speak. I’m much more spiritual. The Old Testament talks about the hierarchy of angels, and we were taught to believe that they look much different than what’s described.

Cherubs, for example, we know them as cute little babies with pot bellies and wings, but when you go into the history of the hierarchy of angels, they look like demons. I’m like, “This is great! This is fantastic!” We started seeing TikTok and YouTube videos last year or so on biblically accurate angels and how they are described, and I’m like, “This is fire. I must try and do my rendition of it.” I’m actually thinking about doing more of those cosplays in the future. 

What has been the most difficult cosplay you have done, and what made it so challenging?

Now, that’s an easy one. Body paint does not paint evenly, especially the different colors that you use. For someone with a darker skin tone, I would say to use colors like lighter yellows and white. They want to blend into our color, versus someone with more fair skin who probably wouldn’t have as much of an issue blending.

I did Eris from Lore Olympus, and the character is yellow. I’ve never cursed so much in my entire life putting on body paint (laughs). I wanted to make it as flawless as possible, but it was trying to merge into my own skin tone. I’m like, “No! I don’t want brown; I want yellow.” It finally turned out great, but that was a hot mess. There was a lot of cursing involved. 

Do you prefer to do solo cosplays, or cosplays with other people?

I do not like group projects because, a lot of times, I don’t have a game plan. When I’m doing cosplays in my head, I have more of a rough draft. I was never much of a rough draft person either. Even in school, the teacher’s like, “Write me a rough draft.” “OK, here’s the final copy.” They’re like, “No, that’s not what I asked for.” So, I like to do projects on my own, and with social media, I feel like you need to have everything nice and organized. When I’m cosplaying, it’s a hot mess. It’s a blob of color everywhere. Let me be a messy artist in my own world!

Are there any other cosplayers that you really admire?

Oh, yes! Diana the Great is my cosplay wife, so everyone should check her out, but everyone should also check out Queenie Shah. She is spectacular! I guess you would consider her a bio queen in a way because she does a lot of drag inspired makeup, and she’s just fantastic. She does a lot of applications, like putting rhinestones on accessories, and that takes such a long time. So, on top of her doing her makeup, she will make an entire crown out of rhinestones. She’ll make an entire melee weapon out of rhinestones, and it’ll take her weeks to do it. She should have hundreds of thousands of followers.

Because cosplay is an artistic expression, what is something you have learned about yourself through this outlet?

I would say, confidence. It takes a lot to put your craft out there, and everyone’s not going to like it, but that’s OK. I had to pass that hurdle before I went into cosplay because I was so worried about what people would think of me. I would constantly compare myself to big-name cosplayers being like, my craft is not at that level yet, so people won’t gravitate to me. 

I learned that if people are going to like me and follow me, it’s because I’m doing something that they do like. I don’t need to be somebody else that I’m not. I can just continue my own journey, and if people follow what I love, that’s great. That’s wonderful. I don’t need to have a whole bunch of followers just to have a few people that really like what I do. That’s encouraging.

Are there any long-term goals you hope to achieve as a cosplayer?

I’m all about body positivity and making cosplay inclusive. A lot of people don’t understand that cosplayers are just a bunch of nerds (laughs). We don’t have any expectations. We could just throw on a cape and paper crown and be like, “This is my cosplay.” Now that it’s become mainstream, there’s so much pressure to look and act a certain way—how our hair is, how our skin is—it’s kind of being compared to modeling, which is bothersome to me. People want to do this for fun, not clout. So, I want to encourage people who are afraid of getting into cosplay to just do it.

Some people are like, “I have to lose weight.” No, you don’t. You didn’t have to lose weight for Halloween, right? You just put on an outfit and went out to get candy. It’s the same vibe. I want to keep pushing that envelope, and in the future, I would love to possibly make a body paint line for individuals with sensitive skin. I have eczema, and I know that a lot of people who have sensitive skin or skin issues are kind of hesitant about body paint. I want to create something they can try that’s not going to irritate them.

Before we wrap up, is there anything else you would like to mention or plug?

I just want to say thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity! It was a pleasure.

Stay up-to-date and connect with SayoNay by following her on Facebook and Instagram @sayonay_cosplay.  

Photos Courtesy of SayoNay