Questions Surround Gulbis Decision To Pose With Painted Swimsuit In Swimsuit Issue

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**SI complained about the thumbnail posting of the image so I'm going to make sure I'm in compliance by also removing all links here to the content. Wouldn't want to offend anyone!

You can feel the tension as golf.com's Jeff Ritter doesn't back down in questioning the decision to use a body painted swimsuit for Natalie Gulbis's SI Swimsuit issue shoot.

Uh, so yes, that's paint. How do they do paint the part where...oh this can't end well. Just check it out. On newstands this week. Or you can view a full gallery of Gulbis shots here.

Look how Ritter doesn't open with a softball:

This is your first appearance in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. You’ve previously modeled in Maxim, FHM, your own calendars … why SI?

I'm going to leave out the answer to that scorcher so you can have the same joy of revelation that I experienced.

Whose idea was it to ditch the bikini in favor of body paint?

This guy is relentless!

As I was walking into the elevator after my first meeting at the SI office in January of last year, I asked them if they had ever body-painted an athlete before, and as the door was closing on the elevator, [senior editor] M.J. Day was like, “No we haven’t. Would you do it?” And I said, “I think so…let me see...I think so!” So, from that, SI came back to me sometime after and said, “O.K., we’ve decided we’re going to body-paint athletes. Does that sound like something you’d like to be a part of?” It was an honor, and it was exciting.

So, again, how do they paint the...eh forget it. Just watch the "making of" video.