TAKING PART:THE FIRST thing you noticed was the cold. It being summertime in Dublin, about the only guarantee for the 2,500 people stripping off for a massive nude photoshoot was that there would be plenty of wind circling around our nether regions, writes Charlie Taylor.
And so it turned out to be. Yet there was little hesitation when the order came to get undressed.
I joined with Dubliners of various shapes and sizes who were taking up acclaimed American photographer Spencer Tunick's challenge to bare all for art.
Tony Suttle from Blackrock, Co Dublin, decided to participate to celebrate his 70th birthday.
"This is a present from me to me. I just decided that this would be something unusual to do and that it would be good to have a picture on the wall," said Mr Suttle.
On arriving at South Wall, a sense of giddiness seemed to take over as we waited for sunrise and the order to disrobe.
"There's a fantastic sense of community. It's very strange and stark . . . we're so used to hiding and I think this really is a celebration of us as human beings," said Tony Murray from Fairview.
Ariana Fattori from Italy said she wasn't nervous. "There's lot of jokes and everybody is on the same wavelength, even if this is all a bit surreal," she said.
When the order came it was swift. Temperatures dropped as quickly as our drawers and as we shivered, people sought to stay warm with spontaneous rounds of applause and Mexican waves.
We cheered as a car ferry passed by and one wag noted that if we weren't exactly offering a hundred thousand welcomes to those on board, it was a pretty close thing. Strangely, there was no sense of embarrassment.
Maybe it was simply too cold for blushes, or perhaps it just no longer seemed to matter whether our worldly goods were on public display.