Held every June, the festival pays homage to Tacloban’s patron saint, Señor Santo Niño de Tacloban, through merrymaking and a display of the rich cultural heritage of Leyte and Samar. It also depicts how their ancestors came to accept Christianity. The first Pintados Festival was held on June 29, 1987 in memory of the first inhabitants of the Visayas who were called "pintados." These Visayan men had their bodies tattooed from the ankles up to their upper torso and neck. The braver ones even extended their tattoo marks up to their cheeks, around their eyes and forehead. This art of body painting had even amazed the Spanish colonizers.