when i had lunch with uncle tommi at the reunion, we started talking about henna and body painting! i had no idea there were other folks on the site interested in this, and i think we need a thread for it. come share your photos, products, tips, patterns, etc.
maybe next year we can have a henna or body painting booth at the reunion!
i've been henna-ing my hair for about 2-3 years now, and doing henna tattoos for about a year. i've done a couple of small community arts events where i did tattoos on other folks but mostly i practice on myself. i'm saving up money to buy more supplies so i can practice more and hopefully improve! i'll post some pictures later of things i've done and about my process.
one of the things i really love about henna is that it's very meditative and time consuming. i have always felt like i must be doing productive things all the time, so the idea of spending hours and hours doing an intricate tattoo that is just going to disappear in a few weeks seems absurd, almost. but it's a really reflective process. mixing the henna takes about 12-15 hours, then doing a tattoo can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, then it has to rest for several hours and you can't touch anything while it's staining, so you essentially have to be immobile for awhile. it's a good way to force yourself to slow down and take some me-time