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"It was very strange, I did not understand what was happening, I had never heard of black henna ."
The British Mary Bates was lying on the beach during her holidays in Turkey in 2015, when a woman asked her if she wanted a henna tattoo.
He had never done it before, but he loved the drawings and decided to make a dream catcher on his ankle. I was then 16 years old.
"At the time, something started to go wrong," he recalls on BBC Three.
"All the lines started to rise and then it got worse, after a few days it started to flow and I had big pieces of skin".
What Mary was experiencing was an allergic reaction to the so-called " Black Henna ": a potentially toxic variety of this natural, temporary dye that is traditionally used in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. North decorate the skin, especially before the celebration of a wedding; or to dye the hair or paint the nails.
True henna is browner than black. / Ashitha Nagesh / Wonderful & Strange What local artists promise is a tattoo that will disappear naturally in a few weeks.
But unlike what happens with natural henna which is brown and made entirely with plant ingredients, the black variety contains a large amount of a chemical called paraphenylenediamine or PPD.
This product is found, for example, in hair dyes, but in the case of black henna, it may be present in high concentrations.
A dragon forever
The use of black henna has proliferated in very touristy places, especially in North Africa.
Although do not all undergo a black henna tattoo reaction the risk of doing so is so great that in the European Union it is forbidden to put high concentrations of PPD on the skin
Mary, who is now 19, was treated with steroids and a honey gel, but had to go to the hospital once a week for more than a month before her ankle be healed.
Dreamcatcher scar that Mary was made to do on her ankle thinking it would be a temporary tattoo. / Inpho The doctors themselves thought that they would be left with marks for life, but fortunately Mary says that they missed it.
She is one of the lucky ones.
Alex, the son of Kelly Hutton, another Briton, had a problem similar to that of Mary but in his case the scars still cover a large part of his arm.
The boy was 7 when they went on holiday in Morocco last October. When two women approached them on the beach and offered them tattoos, Kelly did not suspect anything since he had already had henna experience.
"He wanted to get the biggest tattoo possible on his arm and ask for a tattoo. huge drawing of a dragon ".
Scar from the dragon tattoo that Alex was made with black henna. / Kelly Hutton / iStock Kelly then had no idea of the difference between black henna and natural henna
The child did not have a bad reaction immediately.This happened a week and a half ago later, when they had already gone home, when in the middle of the night he got up trying to scratch his arm. " His skin had begun to rise exactly with the same shape as the dragon who had been tattooed on his arm, and that did not stop biting him, "said the mother to the BBC.
" We took him to the doctor, who gave us a steroid cream. "
" The cream finally worked and stopped itching, but the black henna has gone se a scar on the arm that still has not disappeared 8 months later. "
Permanent scars of 69%
Deena Stevens, 26, had the same in the UAE United Arab Emirates a year and a half ago.
When he realized shortly after receiving the tattoo that it was black henna, he washed his hand as soon as possible.
For six days he had no reaction and thought that he had been spared a reaction but a week later he woke up at dawn with a big itch.
Despite scarring scars and steroids still has marks on the hand.
An allergic reaction to black henna may take more than a week to appear. / iStock According to dermatologist Anjali Mahto, scars are common with black henna, but whether they are prominent and permanent or not depends on how bad the initial reaction was.
Several studies have confirmed that at least 69% of people will suffer from a reaction to black henna if they leave it on the skin for 120 minutes or more, which is something common when it is applied as a temporary tattoo.
"If you have a lot of inflammation and blisters, you could end up with permanent scars."
How to distinguish the natural henna from the black henna
The henna artist Ash Kumar, whose designs can be enjoyed in the Bollywood musical videos and films, is one of the most vocal active against black henna.
Ash Kumar explains that now people are afraid to get any type of henna tattoo for afraid to have a reaction but insists that the Black henna is "the impostor".
It can be difficult for tourists to know if henna is natural or black, since both colors are dark. It is also risky to trust street vendors. / iStock "True henna is totally safe, was used for thousands of years ," he says.
"It is made with ingredients derived from plants, such as eucalyptus, which helps cool the skin, and that is why it is given to women a few days before their wedding."
"Traditionally it's done for therapeutic reasons, to calm the bride and help her relax, that's why Hindus, Muslims, Sikh religion and some Jewish communities the do, if you have a good product, it is very good, "said the artist.
According to the artist, natural henna has a very distinctive smell while black henna does not normally do.
"Natural henna is a brown paste that gives a eucalyptus or clove smell, similar to Vicks Vaporub, but black henna paste is odorless or may give off a paraffin odor." ] It does not have a pleasant odor he described
He also warns that henna never marks the skin immediately, but progressively progresses over several days, which may be an early warning signal
"If you are offered a temporary henna tattoo, ask them if the color is instant, if they say yes, run ", he recommends
Read the original English article of BBC Three at this link .
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