Thumbs up to Henna Tattoos (Henna Tattoos)

Member Name: *stonie*

Product:	Henna Tattoos
Date:	17/08/01 (1383 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not permenant, fun, fairly cheap

Disadvantages: can get messy, if you want good quality henna paste is can be pricey

Last summer, my friend and I had another one of our ‘great’ ideas. Her being a fashion/ trend worshiper, this was how the plan went: We’d go for our last minute holiday shop in London, and finish it off with going to Oxford Street’s famous Selfridges, where we’d heard that they did ‘really good’ henna tattoos.

So, all set with our shopping lists (that’s not really, true, I don’t do shopping lists, I can’t cope with lists…too organised for my liking, but it sounds good) we caught the train to Oxford Circus, and let the shopping commence. When everything in sight was bought, we trundled down the street to Selfridges.

After half an hour or so of searching and wrong directions from the staff, we finally found the henna tattoo artist’s little booth...only the henna tattoo artist wasn’t there. However, we were assured by another girl working there that she would be back in 10 minutes. So that gave us time to look around, and I fell upon a little book about the art of henna…

…Henna is a traditional art of body painting, which originated around the Middle East, India, Pakistan and North Africa. It is a paste made from finely ground leaves from the Henna plant, to which hot water is then added. Henna has many names, due to the different languages of the areas from which it originated. (A few examples are, Mendee, Jamica Mignontte...But you didn’t really need to know that, I was just feeling all showy-offy).

Henna has always been used for body decoration, although it was also used for other purposes, for example, the Moroccans rubbed it on their palms, because they believed it would reduce body temperature, and the ancient Egyptians painted it on the fingers and toes of Pharoahs before they were mummified. It’s only been in recent years (i.e. the last five or so years) that the art has come over seas and been taken in by the western fashio
n culture.

So, what happens when you get a henna tattoo? Well, the paste is applied in the pattern that you’ve chosen, and then you leave it- taking care not to crease the skin as the paste is drying, else, the end result will be distorted. The paste will dry to form a hardish crust, which will then flake off, leaving a browny-orangey mark where the paste was. The henna is NOT permanent, and will last for anything up to a few days to a few weeks. There are debates about how good this can be for your health as it is a substance alien to your body, which you allow to be absorbed into your skin, and therefore into your bloodstream…but then again, who knows??

…So anyway, the lady comes back from where-ever she was, and we get our tattoos done- I wanted a little butterfly, but she said that it’d have to be quite big because she wouldn’t be able to do all the fine detail (isn’t that what artists are supposed to be good at??) So I settle for a less detailed, slightly larger than wanted butterfly.

When it’s finished, she covers it up with some tissue, and tapes it to my hip, to protect it from clothing while it dries. On the train, a few hours later, I take the tissue off to find...the lines of the butterfly about 7mm wide, lines smudged from the so-called ‘protective tissue’ and the shape barely resembling a butterfly!

But don’t let my bad experience put you off, henna tattoos are a great idea and to buy your own kit is not that expensive (anything from about £6-7 upwards), and even if you are the remotest bit artistic, you’ll be able to create something half-decent. So by all means try henna, but by all means, avoid Selfridges like the plague!

A little tip if you are going to buy your own kit- henna paste comes in tubes, but be sure to get a tube with the finest nozzle you can, this way you will achieve much clearer results and the detail can be much finer. You
can also buy coloured henna pastes, but personally, I think the original stuff looks best. You can buy the kits from most high street chemists like Superdrug or Boots, and also most beauty salons.

Summary: