HENNA TATTOO

Luciano Schiazza M.D.
Dermatologist
c/o InMedica - Centro Medico Polispecialistico
Largo XII Ottobre 62
cell 335.655.97.70 - office 010 5701818
www.lucianoschiazza.it

Henna tattoo

Henna (Lawsonia inermis, also called henna tree) is a flowering plant native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, southern Asia, and northern Australia in semi-arid zones. Henna's indigenous zone is the tropical savannah and tropical arid zone, in latitudes between 15° and 25° N and S from Africa to the western Pacific rim.

The English name "henna" comes from the Arabic colloquially Its powedered leaves has been used since the Bronze Age throughout Southern Asia, the Middle East and Africa to dye skin hair, fingernails, leather, silk and wool.

There is mention of henna as a hair dye in Indian court records around 400 CE, in Rome during the Roman Empire. It was listed in the medical texts of the Eber Papyrus (16th c BCE Egypt) and by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (14th c CE (Syria and Egypt) as a medicinal herb. In Morocco, wool is dyed and ornamented with henna, as are drumheads and other leather goods.

Henna is commercially cultivated in Morocco,Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, Somalia and Sudan. Presently the Pali district of Rajasthan is the most heavily cultivated henna production area in India.

Henna tattos (also known as Mehndi tattoos) play a traditional role in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian cultures. In India, for exemple, many people decorate themselves with henna tattos during weddings and festivals.

The name is usually used for dye preparations made from the powedered leaves of the plant for the art of temporary tattooing (a temporary tattoo is a non-permanent image on the skin resembling a real tattoo without having to get a permanent tattoo). Its active dye, Lawsone, binds with the keratine in skin, fingernails, and hair.

Unlike other forms of temporary tattoos, henna does not allow for a full range of colors (natural henna leaves a red-orange stain on the skin) and depending on the location of the tattoo, will gradually fade as the skin sheds: usually for up to three weeks. Natural henna is reasonably safe because has very mild side effect that are extremely rare to encounter but could be dangerous to people with glucose-6-phosphate deficiency (G6PD deficiency).

Bur the name is misused for other skin and hair dyes, such as black henna or neutral henna, which are not derived from the plant.

Henna tattoo

Black henna is a misnomer arising from imports of plant-based hair dyes in the late 19th century. So called “black henna” powder derives from partly fermented, dried indigo (from the plant Indigofera tinctoria). Indigo will not dye skin black but it could be used in combination with henna to dye hair black.

In the 1990s, henna artists in Africa, India, Bali, the Arabian Peninsula and the West , in an effort to find something that would quickly make jet black temporary body art, began to add one chemical, para-phenylenediamine (PPD) (a common hair dye) to the natural henna to darken the paste. But PPD can cause severe allergic reactions and permanent scarring.

Black henna paste have PPD percentages from 10% to 80%.

Henna tattoo

The para-phenylendiamine is a chemical substance used as a permanent hair dye. It is an allergen that can affect different people in different ways, ranging from a no reaction to a mild to a very severe reaction; some people even become sensitized to the chemical which creates a permanent chemical sensitivities and  lifelong sensitization to hair dye and related chemicals.

Estimates of allergic reactions range between 3% and 15%If a person has had a “black henna tattoo”, and later dyes their hair with chemical hair dye, the allergic reaction may be severe.

Black henna (that contains PPD) can cause severe allergic reaction, with blisters, hives, swelling, weeping.

The reaction  (referred to as a "type IV hypersensitivity reaction") did not occur until 3-10 days after the initial application of it. Some post-inflammatory scarring can occur in the region of the reaction, as well as pigment changes. Keloid scars, or rubbery collagen scars, can also form. But “Black henna” can be made also with gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid and benzene and has been linked to adult leukemia.

Early reactions to PPD in children can cause a lifelong oversensitivity to the ingredient in hair dyes and dyed clothing, as well as an oversensitivity to other allergens.