Benjamin Oscar Tinao
Hair/Makeup Artist, Creative Director, Designer
Beauty is His Business
By Kiki Tan
PUBLISHED: JANUARY 2010
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BENCH TINAO

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Surprisingly, for Bench, no one batted an eye.  “I was fretting and worrying that my parents would get angry, upset or disappointed. I'm the youngest and only boy. They really didn't care, as long as I was happy.”

Bench adds: “Parents know you better than yourself at times. They have their hunches. My Dad is like totally cool about things. We never really discuss it a whole lot. It's just accepted. When my BF comes up to visit me, Dad treats him like he would any of my other friends. It's all very normal.”

"It is okay to be out and proud.” BENCH TINAO

Obviously, “my life has changed for the better (since coming out). Living in the closet came with telling lies, deflecting any topics that had to do with me, and being quiet and lonely. After coming out, I became more confident, less shy, and more vocal about my true feelings to my family. Everyone knows that I am gay so it's less of a taboo subject. It is okay to be out and proud.”

No wonder, then, that in his designs, for one, “my first inspiration is my Mom and my sisters who gave me the first knowledge about makeup; my photographer (of course my partner is a fashion photographer) and models that always give justice to my works of art,” Bench says. 

Bench adds: “I also draw inspiration from everyone who appreciates beauty. They are the reasons why I’m in this business. People have something incredibly beautiful about themselves that they might not acknowledge. I feel that it’s my job to let them know what that is.”

MISPLACED COMPETITION

While Bench has, thus far, been lucky in life, he knows the GLBTQIA community as a whole still has a lot to accomplish. 

“The only disappointment I have on fellow gays (in my industry, for example) is that they have a misplaced sense of competition. Competition should be positive. It should be good in the sense that it should make the best out of each of us. But what happens is that some have the tendency to concentrate more on how to pull each other down than to better their own craft. And in the process, they forget that the point of all these is to just enjoy what we are doing,” he says.

Bench adds: “It is time for us to make some efforts at concession and reconciliation. No matter who you are, we don't have time for dialogues that begin with ‘you people.’ As a makeup artist I can use my creativity to show and express myself but also lays down the rules by which we are. We are a diverse community, and we need to use that as our tool. We should be showing the rest of society how we can all just get along, by recognizing the bonds that we do have. If we cannot open our hearts to one another, how can we reveal them to society as a whole, and in such a way that they can better know and respect us?”

For information, call (+63) 9275251713, or visit www.bench67.multiply.com and www.bbox09.multiply.com.