Henna Tattoo Designs: How to Apply Henna on Skin

henna tattoo
henna tattoo

Henna Tattoo

Henna tattoo is a temporary body art form that uses henna powder to leave decorative stains on your skin. It is preferred over the actual tattoo because it is natural, inexpensive, painless and risk free.

Types of Henna Tattoos

Indian – Indian henna designs are very complex dense lacy patterns that fill up the space of the entire hands, arms & feet. Sometimes, block colors are used to cover the fingertips or to draw the very popular big dots in the middle of the palm.


Arabic – Arabic designs, on the other hand are simpler & easier to draw as they mostly consist of vine, flower & leaf designs. Also, one of the highlights of Arabic henna designs is that they use more of coloring to create bolder designs.

deepika padukone with henna
deepika padukone with henna

African – These edgy designs, in the form of large bold geometric patterns, are inspired by the various African traditions & rituals.

Egyptian – Henna designs have been found on Egyptian mummies. Due to its vast history, Egyptian designs are mostly inspired by mythology & imagery from the past & also consist of creatures like fire dragons & pythons.

Tips for applying Henna Tattoos

  • First of all, use a good spot for tattooing. Avoid spots where henna will fade quickly like the hands as you will tend to wash your hands more often than your other parts of the body.
  • Make sure the skin area you want to tattoo is free of oils or lotions else it will become difficult for henna to absorb in the skin. Just as a precaution, wash the particular area with soap & water.
  • Applying henna can become a really messy business, so make sure to avoid smudging the tattoo. Avoid getting the area wet (this includes sweating). Avoid washing the tattooed spot for atleast the next 24 hours after application.
  • Henna will dry within 30 mins max but you should let the henna stay on the skin for atleast 2-4 hours or possibly overnight because the longer you leave the paste on the darker it will stain.
  • When the henna dries, use a mixture of lemon juice, sugar & water to avoid the henna from cracking and falling off. Also, it is said to darken the color of henna this way.
  • If you want a darker color, keep the tattoo moist (after it dries) with the lemon mixture for approx 1 hour & then wrap the tattooed area with plastic or cloth.

Precaution: Don’t use black henna. Black henna contains a chemical called P-phenylenediamine (PPD) which is used as a hair dye & can be extremely dangerous for the skin causing allergic skin reactions. It’s always safe to ask for the henna paste to be mixed in front of you in case you are getting it done in a salon or outside.

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20 thoughts on “Henna Tattoo Designs: How to Apply Henna on Skin

  1. Hmmm… when Rati and I were dating she used to get crazy about getting henna on her hands on Karwa Chauth (we were not even married) and I had to obediently stand at the Henna counter while she got the design done, then bring her home in Rickshaw and apply lemon sugar syrup on hands. All the time I had to hear if the henna was not going to come out dark my love wasn’t strong. Fortunately, it came out dark each time.

    *sigh* those good old days… now we are married. :rotfl: :rotfl:

    1. wow you actually used to wait for Rati for her to get her design done. what an obedient bf you might be that time 😛

  2. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: If it doesn’t come out dark, your love isn’t strong?????? Ha, that Rati is smart…she must have been hoping it doesn’t come out dark and then she can pout and make puppy faces… 😀 😀 😀

  3. LOL Sanjeev Bahi.. Can imagine that. Lovely memories to be cherished no?

    In my hometown and all they have 2 versions to this.

    Some say that the darker your mehndi is, the more you are loved by your better half.
    Version 2 – The darker the mehndi, the better your MIL..

    When the older, married cousins used to frown when their mehndi didnt turn dark, we younger ones devised a wicked advice.

    Now gals..don’t kill me for mentioning it here..or should I?

  4. This was my mehndi for the wedding function, they told me if it didn’t get dark it would mean my hubby’s family would not be good to me…

    http://picasaweb.google.com/bhupendra.joshi/Marriage?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHMy6fYqsD6BQ&feat=email#5317002127078371106

    We had some stones on the way, but on that day..at the marriage hall i was already their daughter …the mehndi was applied by my baabhi, my sari was draped by my mom in law…my hair done by my sis in law….feet by buaji and the list goes on and on….so in the end even if the mehndi wouldn’t have been lighter, i know it wouldn’t mean anything 🙂

    1. wow you look suppperr deb !!! loving the mehendi & the dress & the overall look 😀
      I’m glad you have a reallly good & supportive in laws :-))

    1. Thanks all you gals…but i did feel awfully loaded 😀 like a Christmas tree to say the least :giggle: :giggle: :giggle: :giggle: :giggle: :giggle: :giggle: :giggle:

  5. just scrolled down now! and gone through many articles and posts… and finally decide to leave a comment 🙂 I really love Mehendi (Heena) . I still cry remembering the day when I asked one street mehendi designer to put mehndi in my hands in last Teez. and all the bullshit art he made *waaa* i was really disappointed seeing the only lines in whole art. *cry* after saying him to design a flower a plenty of times he made it in a worst manner. *headbang* . i kicked that artist and walked away crying and finally washed my hand. 🙁 On This Saavan Ki Teez I think I Should Try My own 🙂

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