Body Painting with Henna - or: The Arts of Mehndi

Some of you might already have heard of Mehndi or Mehandi before, others may know it under the name of henna. It means both the name of the body painting and the name of the plant that gives the colour.



Henna, or Lawsonia inermis, is a plant that grows in Africa, southern Asia and Australasia and it means nothing other than simply red. Countries such as India, Pakistan, Morocco, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and Libya cultivated it and used it for body and hair arts since thousands of years. Traditionally, body painting with Henna is used to protect from the evil and most often applied on weddings.



To make the henna powder you use the plants’ leaves and stipes and dry them. You can use the colouring effect of henna for colouring your skin, nails or your hair. In the following I want to put attention to henna as body painting.

There are different ways of making the colouring substance out of the henna powder. In the easiest way you can simply mix the powder with water.



My receipt is slightly different: At the beginning make sure the powder doesn’t lump. Cook black tea and pour just a very, very, very little amount (one soup spoon) in the powder (depends of course how much powder you use, but you don’t need much). Be careful not to pour too much because the paste will get too watery. It should have the consistency of toothpaste. Stir, so there are no lumps and then let it rest for one to two hours. Pour some citrus water mixed with sugar in it. You can also add a drop of olive oil or special henna oil that you can buy. That’s it.



After applying henna onto your skin you let it dry and carefully put some citrus water mixed with sugar on it to intensify the colour. Once it’s half dry you can always put some more of it on your skin so it gets wet again and stays longer on your skin. The colour of the paste will turn dark green when it dried.



Eventually the dried paste will fall off and you can softly scrape it off your skin with a soft knife. You can put henna oil on your skin afterwards to intensify the colour once again.

The best body parts to paint henna with are your feet and hands because henna dyes best on horny skin. If you paint parts like your stomach the color won't be as dark and will fade away faster.

The natural colour of henna tattoos is brown, red or orange, depending on the intensity of the tattoo. Henna is a natural product that should not cause any allergies. Nevertheless, henna paste that you can buy nowadays might have some unhealthy ingredients to make it look darker. Therefore, you should always first check on a small part of your skin if you are allergic.

Henna is not black!

Stay away from black henna! Black henna is very popular because it is similar to a “real” tattoo BUT it is not natural and causes allergic reactions. When you buy powder you can check what it looks like. Natural henna powder and paste is green. If the colour looks like coffee or is black then it consists of unnatural incredients such as black hair dye. Stick to natural henna!

Therefore, when buying henna always check the colour of the powder or paste. Also ask where it comes from. When going to an henna artist also ask where they come from, how they learnt it and where they get their powder from. Look at the colour of the paste.

If you follow those rules you can freely enjoy the beauty of henna tattoos. By the way, did you know that henna has a cooling effect on your skin? Try it yourself on a very hot day and paint your hands or feet with henna. You will feel how your body gets cooled from the henna on it.