We’ve had a ton of “Ask the” threads…
This is a “Tell the…” thread.
So I want to know how to learn to do henna tattoos.
It occurs to me if I learn this skill over this fall and winter I’d have a great entrepreneurial skill and a neat icebreaker to meet women.
So… who’s had or done henna tattoos? How do I get started in learning the designs, inks and tools?
I’ve had mendhi done and applied for special occasions and for my wedding. We had 2 mendhi ladies come over during my shower and apply it on all the girls. My friends have gone through similar experiences. It was a cultural thing for me. When I had it applied for my wedding it was on my hands and feet and took hours to put on.
You can buy kits and copy patterns online. It is fun to try.
I love it, I used to do it regularly, then I worked for an insurance company and needed to be ‘presentable’ so no visible tatoos permanent or temporary allowed [and no funky visible piercings] and am currently job hunting, so dont do it on the odd chance i get to interview.
Let me see how my google-fu is doing, i used to have some great sites marked but lost them wneh my computer died a few months ago.
about dot com
some semi nudes, possibly not work safe
another helpful site, decent links
aruvqan. Thanks for the links. cherry. Thanks for sharing. BTW – if I’m not too nosy – what did the mendhi ladies charge you for your wedding decorations?
Is there anyone here who can give me some practical tips on the use of tools, brushes and finding unsuspecting yet willing victi-- er, I mean, volunteers to practice on?
Just how toxic is black henna? Do many people suffer from using it or is it rare or what?
Well, not sure about black henna at all, I am an historical re-enactor, and modern black henna is not appropriate for my persona, so I have never used it.
In michaels art stores, there are these absolutely tiny squeeze bottles with very fine nozzels that are fantastic for making the fine lines. I have also used a tiny pointed toothpick to gently dab tiny lines and dots, and the opposite end to tweak off misplaced blobs of the paste. I have never used a brush.
Buy 2 inch wide surgical gauze, and a generic nonaerosol spritz bottle to spray on a mist of lime water and rose water. Wrap the gauze around the hands, each finger separately after the paste has air dried so that they dont accidently peel off the paste before it gets a chance to set into the skin. You are aware that the henna has to remain on the skin for several hours to overnight for it to fix well? For body tats, like around the navel, nipples, medallion designs on back shhoulder neck wherever you can use gauze patches and paper medical tape to protect the area while it sets.
I would actualyl practice making the patterns [pick a good hand pattern, a good foot pattern and 2 or 3 medallion types and work exclusively with those until you can do them in your sleep] and make frosting the same consistancy of the henna paste and practice making your designs on wax paper until you are picture perfect with them.
little bottles and a lot of fantastic patterns here
Just pick out and make a pattern book of say:
one mandala suitable for around a bellybutton
one nice hand pattern, with complimentary foot pattern in tribal/geometric
one nice hand and foot pattern in city [the sort of floral swirly kind]
2 wristbands, one small and dainty, one larger
a larger piece suitable for either back or the neckline part of the chest
Once you get decent at those patterns, you can take your folio [or at least a small printout of smaller versions of the patterns that is small enough to carry around with you] and let people know that you are working on becoming a mehndi artist, and offer to do one of these patterns on them for material cost until you get a client list … and let them know that they will always pay cost, and the people they refer to you will get your ‘retail’ cost … and for every so many references of people to you you will do them once for free=)
Once you have both a small following, and a decent sized folio, then you might try ‘renting’ booth space at a renn fair to do smaller stuff and take appointments to do more elaborate stuff or special events=)
Oooh… I have a question, if I may.
Part of my halloween costume involves facial henna tattoos. I have a kit that I bought a while ago Just In Case Of Such Things, and it gives instructions that appear to be easy to follow (mixing the powder with coffee or dark tea, apply design). However, I obviously don’t want to be walking around for weeks afterward with the designs in place (though I wouldn’t be averse to a few days). Is there a way to, um, water down the paste, or some other way to quickly remove the tattoos once the party is over? And I notice someone mentioned that there’s a wait time involved- the kit doesn’t mention that. Would 1-2 hours do it?
I’ve done lots of henna.
bobkitty, the henna will be on your skin for at least a week. You could maybe try vanishing creme to lighten it, but I don’t know if that would work. It would probably leave a pale spot on your skin, since it contains a mild bleaching agent. You can get body paints that are henna-like; bottles of liquid you apply with a tiny brush, which wash off with soap and water after.
Askia, kits can be expensive, but sometimes have templates of nice patterns that are good for beginners. If you want to save some money, see if you can get a bag of the henna powder. Different kits often use different catalysts for the henna, but traditionally the main materials are:
-henna powder
-eucalyptus oil
-lemon juice
-sugar water
-small brush or squeeze bottle with small nozzle (you can use a icing-bag type of applicator like bakers use, but they can be quite messy)
-cotton balls
-old towel to protect work area
Ok, you ready for a quick henna lesson?
Step 1: Empty powder into bowl. Using a wooden spoon (not metal), slowly stir in water until the henna is about the consistency of pancake batter. You want it to be viscous, but not runny, otherwise it’ll drip down your skin and ruin the design. Make sure to break up any lumps until you have a uniformly smooth paste. Spoon some paste into a squeeze bottle if you have one; if you’re using a brush instead, you can dip it directly into the paste.
Step 2: dampen a cotton ball with the eucalyptus oil and rub it on the area to be tattooed (The oil acts as a catalyst for the proteins in the henna and helps develop the colour). Then, using your application tool, apply your design. Any mistakes can be wiped off with the oil-soaked cotton.
Step 3: After you’re done, mix up a solution of sugar water. Use about 1 cup of lukewarm water and stir in about a teaspoon of sugar. Add a few drops of lemon juice. As your henna dries, it’ll start to crack and flake. Dampen a cotton ball in the sugar water and dab it gently on the design once every half hour. This will help keep the henna moist on your skin so it can develop longer.
The times you should keep the paste on your skin varies. You can leave it on anywhere from 6 hours to 24 hours. The longer you keep it on your skin, the deeper the colour will be, and the longer it will last. I keep mine on at least 12 hours. When you are satisfied with the developing time, scrape the henna off with your nail or other flat, blunt tool (a cuticle pusher works well). Swab the area off once more with eucalyptus oil and let dry. Try not to wash it for at least a day. Congratulations, you’ve done your first tattoo! 
Black henna is quite dangerous, and can leave nasty scars. Some people like it because it simulates black tattoo ink, but it can be very dangerous to use.
The henna ladies charge $5 per hand, so if they wanted both hands we spent 10 bucks, and mine cost $200 for the application I think. I also wouln’t recommend using black henna that has the dye in it because it is really harsh.
cherry. Is that $5 for one hand, for one side? How intricate were your designs?
Is the 12 hour drying time problematic for doing things on the go? How soon does the henna dry to the touch?
They are standard wedding designs for the girls, since most of my friends were non-asian it was their first time attending a mendhi so I don’t know what whether they asked for one side or both, one hand or both, it was up to them. I only know I paid 5 per hand. And 12 hours should be enough time, obviously the longer you leave it on the darker it becomes until it drys and cracks off. You can keep applying lemon juice mixture to keep it moist and get it darker. I slept with mine on.
I’ve also heard that black henna is pretty harsh. The lady who taught me mendhi is from the Middle East, and she says that there women achieve a black tint to the henna by holding the developing designs over the smoke coming from a fire - the soot blackens the paste. this would probably be better than whatever dye is used to make an artificial black.
In its natural state, a developed henna design will be a deep orangey brown shade, like a burnt ochre.
For a Halloween costume, and especially on the face, I would just go with brown eyeliner pencil. Weaker henna won’t “set up”, and it’s a big time commitment for a one-night thing assuming you could remove it, which I don’t think you can.
Hey, what’s your costume?
Thanks for the input, folks. I may have to resort to body paint or eyeliner… or just pretend I didn’t know it wouldn’t fade in a couple of days. 
A modified Dragonrider of Pern, should I meet my weight loss goal. 
I’m a professional henna artist with fourteen years’ experience and have written two books on the subject.
A couple things in the previous posts I want to address before I answer your question-
First, henna is orangey-reddish-brown. It is never, ever black! The stuff usually used and called ‘black henna’ is either concentrated hair or leather dye. It can cause third-degree chemical burns with permanent scarring, bladder cancer, permanent allergies to any sort of dye, and even just death. You can Google pages and pages of stuff about how people got poisoned with the stuff. Bad juju.
Don’t bother applying henna to your face. It probably won’t stain past peanut butter color, if at all, and it may not last more than a few hours. Henna stains the dead skin cells, and it needs to go through as many layers as possible to get a good opaque color. That’s why hands and feet stain best. The face is thin skinned, exfoliates quickly, and what dead skin you do have is usually pretty saturated with oils.
Now on to what you really wanted to know.
First, you MUST start with good henna powder. The stuff at your local Arabic or Indian market is not going to cut it. Regardless of the picture on the box, these are made to dye hair. They are not very strong or fresh and will not stain skin well. Also, for good design lines, you need absolute baby powder sifting, and these won’t give you that, either. You can do it yourself, but it’s a big mess and you lose a third of the powder. It actually ends up cheaper in the long run, plus you get good quality stuff, to order from an artist online. Many of us sell from the same stock we use professionally, so it’s good and fresh and sifted and pure. Some hennas have dyes and other stuff in them which may or may not be healthy, but are pretty much unnecessary.
You tell if a henna is good by the smell. It should smell like, well, henna. You’ll know it once you smell it. It’s like damp hay and spinach and tea. People used to say buy by color, that the brighter the green, the better the henna. Now many manufacturers, especially Indians, add green dye to the powder to brighten it up. Most of the best powders are more on the khaki side of green.
Henna needs three things to release the dye- moisture, acidity, and heat. The cheapest and easiest thing to mix henna with is room temperature lemon juice. The henna does not care if you squeeze it yourself or pour it out of a bottle. Adding water or coffee or tea, which are mostly water, will give you moisture but it actually hinders the dye release, making less dye available than you might otherwise get, making the stain less. If you have super fresh henna and your water is acidic, you might get away with it, but you will always have better results with an acid than plain water.
My recipe is here: www.HennaDancer.com
As for tools, each has its own benefits and down sides. I prefer hand-rolled mylar cones. They’re easy to learn to use, they never clog, you can get as fine or thick a line as you want, there is no hand strain at all, and they’re shiny. I like shiny objects. The little bottles are also pretty easy to use, but they clog like mad and hurt even worse than they clog. It took my chiropractor twice a week for two months to get the pain to go away after I used one for only a couple hours.
If you’ve never used hand-mixed paste before, you may want to consider buying some from an artist. The biggest hurdle for me when I was starting was getting the consistency right. I didn’t know what I was trying to achieve. It is vital that you buy from an artist here. The stuff in stores is almost always dead by the time it’s sold, plus it sometimes contains ‘traditional’ ingredients like turpentine and oven cleaner. You may have better luck in a week or so, as stores start putting out stuff for Eid and more fresh paste becomes available, but if you can’t smell it first, don’t buy, and if it smells like something you wouldn’t want on your skin, it likely isn’t. Ick.
Whew. I should know better than to read SDMB right before I go to bed. Must… respond… to… one… last… post…
The best noncommercial resource on the Net for henna stuff is www.HennaTribe.com IT has heaps of professional artists giving years of advice to total newbies, and everyone shares and supports each other. It’s a really friendly place.