Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday that he sees the women parading around Times Square covered in little but body paint not as creative artists, but as pushy panhandlers whose efforts to separate tourists from their money should be regulated.

The topless women, known as desnudas, have attracted more scrutiny than usual this summer amid complaints about their aggressive solicitation of payment to pose for pictures. Mr. de Blasio placed them in the same category as the gaggle of costumed characters that have become nearly synonymous with predatory panhandling in and around Times Square.

“It’s wrong,” Mr. de Blasio said of the topless women’s tactics, during a news conference. “We are going to look for every appropriate way to regulate all activity that involves either begging, or asking people for a contribution based on, you know, the opportunity to take a picture, for example.” The mayor added, “I don’t like the situation in Times Square, and we’re going to address it in a very aggressive manner.”

Still, Mr. de Blasio acknowledged that reining in the desnudas was complicated by the protections afforded to artistic expression by the First Amendment. “That doesn’t mean we can’t find legislative and regulatory solutions that still fall within constitutional protections,” he said.