Songfacts®:

• "Body Paint" is about Alex Turner's cheating lover. The Arctic Monkeys singer has seen through her lies and knows she's having an affair.
  
  So predictable, I know what you're thinking
  
  The girl has attempted to cover up her betrayal but she can't keep everything hidden.
  
  Still a trace of body paint
  On your legs and on your arms and on your face
  
  Turner outlines his physical and mental ailments that her infidelity has triggered.
  
  My teeth are beating and my knees are weak
  It's as if there's something up with the wiring
  
  Rather than confronting his dishonest romantic partner verbally, Turner pretends nothing is going on. Instead, it's going to give him material for a song.
  
  And I'm keeping on my costume
  And calling it a writing tool
• The girl feels guilt about her romantic tryst and sheds tears when she's alone.
  
  Do your time travelling through the tanning booth
  So you don't let the sun catch you crying
  
  The lyric references Gerry and the Pacemakers 1964 hit "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying." In that song the Liverpool beat group explains it's best to save your tears for nighttime.
• Alex Turner composed and wrote the song. He and producer James Ford drafted the string arrangements that the British music supervisor, composer and arranger Bridget Samuels simplified and edited.
• Arctic Monkeys debuted "Body Paint" live during an intimate show at the 3,000-capacity Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, on September 22, 2022. They released it as the second single from The Car a week later.
• The band gave "Body Paint" its televisual debut when they played it on the September 29, 2022 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The Arctic Monkeys filmed their Fallon appearance a week earlier while they were in New York for their Kings Theatre concert.
• Arctic Monkeys recorded The Car with their regular producer James Ford. They laid it down at Butley Priory, a wedding venue converted into a studio in rural Suffolk and La Frette in Paris. The band recorded the strings at RAK Studios' Studio 1 in London, engineered by longtime Arctic Monkeys collaborator Loren Humphrey.
• Brook Linder (Beck's "Fix Me," Nine Inch Nails' "Less Than") filmed the retro video in London and Missouri. He filled the visual with vintage camera equipment and and evocative scenes such as Turner lighting a cigarette with a burning tarot card that reads "The Fool."