Mendhi is the usage of henna to decorate one’s skin in South Asia. Henna is a small tree that is considered very auspicious.Henna is also used as a medicinal plant in some countries.

The usage of henna goes way back to the 1600 BC when the Egyptians dye the hands and hairs of their Pharaohs before they are mummified. In these days, menhdi is applied on a bride during a wedding, birthdays and during the celebration of the completion of 7th month pregnancy.

There are many traditional Mendhi designs. For example: Arabic floral designs, geometrical floral designs, designs using fine lines, Arabic leaf designs. However, in these modern days, people use any type of designs that relate to their culture. Chinese will use their symbols, whereas new age Americans will use some spiritual designs.

During weddings, Mendhi is applied on the bride’s palms with fine lines and figurines that depict a wedding ceremony. The mehndi sometimes extend till the forearm. It is applied on the feet as well and sometimes extends upwards to the knee.

In order to prepare to Mendhi, the henna’s leaves are taken and dried. Next, you have to ground it so it turns into powder form. After that, the powder is turned into paste form. Then add half a lemon’s juice, a few drops of eucalyptus oil, cloves paste and 2 tablespoons of coffee. Mix the mixture evenly and transfer them into the Mendhi cone. Make a hole at the end of the cone so that the henna mixture is able to come out.

Then, you can freely design on someone’s hand as if you were decorating a cake with cream. It is better that you keep the tattoo moist for as long as possible after applying Mendhi. You can do that by applying a mixture of sugar and lemon juice on the Mendhi. When it dries up, clean up the caked Mendhi. Unless your Mendhi comes into contact with water, its color will continue to darken.

If you would like to remove the tattoo, you can wash it under hot water if it has just been applied recently. For at least 10 minutes, soak the affected area in a hot, soapy water. Then scrub the henna away with a brush. This only brushes it off the surface as some of it may have penetrated into your skin. In order to completely remove it, continue soaking in a hot water with bleach and scrub it. Repeat till Mendhi tattoo is gone.

So what’s the deal with The Shhh…Tattoo? Is this a tattoo trend on the rise, like Chinese characters, swallows, and nautical stars?

The singer and the Mean Girls star both had the word “Shhh…” tattooed on their index fingers during an impromptu visit to Shamrock Tattoos in Hollywood.  But it was only after Allen showed off the design on her online Twitter page that she realized fellow pop star and tattoo fan Rihanna had the same body art inked in 2008. Lily Allen gave an interview where she admits to  regretting her “Shhh…” finger tattoo. Allen explains, “I’ve since found out Rihanna’s got the same thing, so it’s not really… I mean she’s very cool – but I thought I was being original!”

But here is an idea from BodyIllustrated to make it… let’s just say more special…

what if she had ‘…ittt’ on the other finger?

These days, it is not uncommon for tattoos to be associated with other forms of body art.  In many areas, especially larger cities, tattoo studios are no longer solely tattoo studios, as they also offer piercings.  In combining these two, two issues frequently arise.  First, while many people consider tasteful, well-done tattoos to be a legitimate form of self-expression through artwork, a large number in this category also consider body piercing to be unacceptable;  or, at the very least, undesirable.  It is difficult to communicate this to young people, especially teenagers, when an increasing number of tattoo studios also offer body piercing.  Kids will naturally assume that if artwork is acceptable, acquiring holes and rings in various parts of their anatomies should also be acceptable.  

A second important issue regarding this subject is that while states generally have strict regulations surrounding tattoos, that is not always the case with body piercing.  Even when tattooing is strictly regulated to the extent that minors cannot be tattooed, or, in some states, requiring the parent’s consent for the process, it is becoming an increasing problem in some areas that body piercing carries no such requirements.

There are a couple of serious repercussions to this fact.  First, many parents rightfully consider it to be a violation of parental rights to find that “piercing artists” can undermine their parental authority by putting piercings in their under-aged kids, not only without a parent’s consent but without their knowledge in advance.

Second, in the areas where this can legally be done, there is also the issue of health standards.  While the general rule is that a person is presented with risk factors in writing prior to getting a tattoo, piercing artists often allow minors to sign health waivers;  although this is illegal, it is sometimes done anyway.

This opens up a whole “can of worms” with both legal and health issues.  Legally, minors cannot sign such forms;  but the health aspect of it is also worth noting.  As body piercing carries much higher and more frequent risks of infection than tattoos, in signing these health waivers the teenager is rarely aware of how significant these risk factors actually are.  While the risk of infection from body piercing is high enough in general, it can become even more so depending on the location of the piercing.  Having piercings done in areas that are normally exposed to saliva, or airborne dirt, is simply asking for trouble.  Yet piercing artists are often more concerned about making money than they are about the potential health repercussions to their young clients.

In addition to these factors, there is also the factor of social stigma.  While youngsters may be accurate in assuming that acquiring body piercings will impress their teenage or other immature friends, it is not likely that it will impress anyone else.  Even if they withstand parental objections, and ignore the dismay of school staff and employers, they have yet to see that body piercings generally do not go over very well in “the real world.”

Whether one is most concerned with the potential health risks of body piercing, or the general consensus of the American population, body piercing has a long way to go before it is considered an acceptable practice.  Tattoos carry some degree of valid purpose;  in the opinion of  most American adults, body piercing has no value other than for its owner to appear less than respectable.