This week my artistic endeavor was some henna tattooing (mehndi). I hung out with my stepsister who has a henna cone, so we took turns making designs on our skin. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of her creation, but she made a lovely manta ray. While she was creating her tattoo, I spent a while looking through the internet for inspiration. I always take way too long to figure out what I want to make. I wanted to see if anyone had incorporated animals into the usual hand designs. I was pleased to see a lot of more traditional mehndi designs including cows and deer. As I looked, I was disappointed at how many AI designs there were on Pinterest and Google. A lot of them were very obvious. I noticed one design that caught my eye. I thought it was cool, until I looked hard at the image and noticed the lack of fingernails on some fingers and the second ear artifact on the antelope. It’s harder to tell with this one, but I’m rather confident it’s AI.
Annoyed that I had been fooled, I decided I would try to make my own design improving upon the gross AI one. I made the antelope into a unicorn. I didn’t go as detailed on the fingers and wrist, since I wanted to make the design my own.
The first two images are the henna paste dried on my hand. The paste has to sit for around 12 hours (that’s what I do anyway) and then you can flake it off. Usually portions of it have already flaked off by then, especially if the area is your hand. When the dried paste comes off, the areas look more red and orange. The redder the area, the thinner the skin, generally. As the henna oxidizes, it turns a more brown color (seen in the bottom two images), similar to the color of the original paste. I’ve dyed my hair with henna too, and the effect is pretty similar. The hair slowly turns from copper, to red, to brown eventually, but this happens at a slower rate and the red color can be encouraged with lemon juice. It’s always fun experimenting with the paste. It comes from a plant, so it’s non-toxic unless you’re allergic.
I think the overall tattoo turned out pretty cool. It’s fun to make your own temporary tattoos. I would definitely highly recommend trying henna. It’s a little unforgiving as there’s no way to cover up or undo your mistakes, but with a confident hand and a little fun, it can turn out very fun!
If there’s anything anyone wants me to try or other suggestions, feel free to comment!
More to come!