Mehndi

Mehndi, usually denotes the application of henna for body art on the skin.

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Mehndi is a temporary body art form, popularly used in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. It is usually drawn, often with intricate patterns and designs, on the hands and feet. This may be in part because the stratum corneum is thickest there (especially for males) and the stain will last for a longer period of time.

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Although the henna vegetable dye is predominantly applied to the hands and feet of brides, there exist traditions in Bangladesh, Kashmir and Sudan where bridegrooms are also expected to be painted before wedding ceremonies. Also in Rajasthan (northwest India), where mehndi is a very ancient folkart, the grooms traditionally get mehndi designs as elaborate as those for brides.

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Once the henna plant is converted to powder, it is mixed with a dark liquid like coffee or tea, lemon juice (to release the dye) and sugar (for consistency) into a paste which is then applied. Depending on how long the paste rests on the skin, the designs last from a few days to two weeks beginning with a red-brown colour and ending with a fading orange presence.

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The term henna tattoo, American marketing slang, is actually an oxymoron — a contradition in terms. Henna mehndi is a temporary surface dying of the skin. Tattoo is the permanent surgical insertion of a pigment underneath the skin.

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Body art: Body art is art made on, or consisting of, the human body. The most common forms of body art are tattoos and body piercings, but also includes scarification, branding, shaping (for example tight-lacing of corsets), and body painting....

Skin: :For alternate meanigns see skin (disambiguation)...

Middle East: The Middle East (also called Southwestern Asia) is a region comprising the lands that extend from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Africa-Eurasia, or more specifically, Asia, and sometimes North Africa and Afghanistan....