Tattoos now a days encompass a lot of different type body arts collected or adapted from different parts of the world. Each part of the world has its own unique style of decorating the body with color and designs. One such style comes from the Southern Asia, Henna tattoo designs. Made from the dried powder of the plant from the genus Lawsonia that belongs to Lythraceae family, the word Henna was taken from the Arabic word for it. Henna tattoo designs have been widely adapted as a method to decorate body parts by many countries around the world.
In certain parts of the world, Henna tattoos are also known as Mehndi. Henna leaves are dried and made into a smooth thick paste that is used to create elaborate and intricate designs. In some South Asian countries, Henna tattoos are considered to be sacred and are usually drawn on hands and feet during festive occasions and ceremonies. For marriage rituals, Henna is much in demand. Not only the bride but others in the household also get their hands decorated with the Henna tattoo designs.
Henna tattoo fall in the category of temporary tattoos. The Lawsone in the smooth Henna pasted when comes in contact with the keratin available in the skin, it turns into a color that can range between dark orange, red, maroon to black. The color lessens after the skin comes in contact with water but it doesn’t completely go away till a week or so. Usually the henna tattoo designs are 
drawn and left on the skin for a few hours before the dried paste of the design is removed to get the designs show the right color expected.
Though henna tattoo designs can simply be made with the henna paste, the henna artists use a number of other accessories to add to the color and to their permanence which can now stay up to one month. Henna if applied to the nails leave a permanent stain that only removes after the nail is grown enough to cut that part out.
But you must be careful when you go for faster coloring black henna. As it may contain para-phenylenediamine (PPD) that can cause skin allergy and can prove worse that one expects. Henna, if natural, can not make the skin black in just about an hour. It can give an orange to red shade within that much time. Certain shops in South Asia provide an essential oil
made by mixing tea tree, lavender, eucalyptus and cajeput oils. This is added to the Henna paste to make the color darker and stay for a longer time.
Henna tattoo designs can be drawn on the back of the neck, arms, belly, hands and feet. When intricately drawn, henna looks attractive and usually the complete arm is decorated in henna designs at certain places in the world. Now a days, glitter particles are added to make the designs get a gold or silver shimmer which make it look more attractive.
