Henna does not take as well on other parts of the body, but it still looks great. There is a myth that traditional henna is done only on the hands and feet. The ancients used it all over the body as well. Henna lasts longer on the hottest parts of the body. The inner arms stain well, as does the belly. (Lie down on your back for belly application.) Necklaces are a common request by Americans seeking henna painting, but the skin of the neck and collarbone is too thin for the stain to last very long. The back also is not a great place to paint henna if your intention is a dark and lasting stain. The legs can be a good choice, but truly, everyone’s skin is different. The thickness of the skin, color, hairiness, and the amount of time the henna paste is left on all make a difference in the amount of time the stain lasts. The less traditional areas of the body, although they do not take as well to henna, are great for experimentation. As a new mehndi artist, this is your territory. Have fun with it.

You have probably noticed that the ankles and tops of the feet are a popular location for permanent tattoos. It is traditional in India to have the soles of the feet painted. You may be thinking, now why in the world would I paint my soles? Who would see it but me? Many American brides have the soles of their painted because they want to share their henna with only their husbands. Body art is not always about showing off. Often, it is about sharing a secret ritual with yourself! (And of course, the henna artist working on you.) One of the problem encountered by those who have the soles of their painted, obviously, is walking. A couch, a television, is walking. A couch, a television, and an intimate friend are important accessories to henna-painted feet. If you can work it out, try getting painted at a location that you can remain at for many hours. Look for a place where you can camp for that night, like your living room couch if it is okay with the rest of your family.

In India, the feet are revered. Here in America, we tend to take our feet for granted. We shove them into high heels and let them sweat in sneakers without a break. Try to examine your attitude toward feet (yours and other peoples, too). Do they disgust you? A lot of people are afraid of their feet. They like to keep them hidden, and they dread the summer when their feet get exposed in sandals. Other people abuse their feet every day and get a pedicure once in a while to pamper themselves. Henna painting is the most sensual way to experience and love your feet. Think of it: You get to rest with your feet up for at least twelve hours! (That is if you really want the henna to take.) The reason Indian people place importance on the feet is that they view them as the point where our bodies make divine contact with the earth. Americans seem to be far less connected to the earth than people of other cultures, so it makes sense that we would ignore this idea. Try to love your feet. Giving yourself a pedicure is a real treat. Henna is an even better treat, and it is practical too. Henna is cooling, so it refreshes hot, sweaty feet! Use the patterns on the following pages or create your own designs.

Mehndi is meant to be painted on the palms of the hands. In fact, it stains more deeply there. Think about your hands for a moment. We usually do not stop to appreciate the role they play in our lives. They are there for doing and showing. We use them for mundane tasks, like washing dishes and opening doors, and also for more romantic tasks, like holding hands or writing in our journal. Many women and even mean invest time and money on weekly manicures. Our hands are our representatives: They come before us. Mehndi on the palms and the outer hands is a tribute to their power.

The actual act of having mehndi done requires contact between the artist and the person being painted. Energy is exchanged this way, through the hands. This can be very healing for the artist and the client. Mehndi softens the skin. You must sit still to receive it, which can help to still the mind, and this is the essence of meditation.

In the Egyptian fashion, you can dip your fingertips in henna paste. Egyptian women also painted henna on their nails. If you do this, it will last for a few months and grow out with your nails. Think of this as an alternative to nail polish.

Creeping vines are great motifs for the backs of the hands. In India they are known as b’hai ki bal. You can even use them to hide skin imperfections like scars. If the skin is dry or tanned, it will be hard for the henna to take. Remember to moisturize and stay out of the sun for a few days beforehand. Roome suggests using Moroccan symbols of protection on the tops of the hands and images of “opening and offering” on the palms of the hands. She suggests the sun, flowers, or mandalas for the insides of the hands. The palms are a place where you can create elaborate and intricate designs as you experiment and create new worlds. Or you can try to copy some of the more traditional designs.

As you discover yourself and the world through mehndi, you will start to notice some of the connections between the symbolism you encounter and the metaphysical arts. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy dealing with truth and knowledge that is found outside of objective experience. Some of the occult sciences, like astrology and Tarot, are grouped with the metaphysical arts in bookstores. Palm reading is an example of an ancient Indian science that has resonance for many people but that cannot be proven by modern science. When choosing which hand you would like to be painted with mehndi, consider the traditional qualities attributed to each hand. If you are hoping to add power to parts of your inner life, such as honing your intuition, getting in touch with your emotions, or healing your body, consider having the left hand painted. If you want to do well on a test, get a job, or control some external influence in your life, consider the right hand. For balance, you can always have both hands painted, but total inactivity for at least a day will be necessary if you want the henna to take. Remember to ask someone close to you to help out.

Moroccan mehndi designs are mainly concerned with protection and fertility. The evil eye is feared by many Mediterranean people, even to this day. An image of the hand, or khamsa (pronounced haam-sa), is thought to counteract the effect of the evil eye. Eyes and hands are common motifs in Moroccan mehndi designs and other arts. The eye sometimes appears as a triangle, a diamond, or a dot. Various representations of the eye are thought to act as mirrors that repel the evil eye.

The unripe mango (keri) is a symbol of virginity, often used in mehndi painted on new brides. It also symbolizes the coming of summer. Vines are symbols of devotion. You can draw vines around the wrists or on the legs, creeping around as vines do on the sides of homes. Roses, sunflowers, lilies, daisies, and irises are commonly used mehndi images.

Birds are the most commonly used animal motif in the henna art of India. The peacock is the national bird of India. When women are separated from their husbands, the peacock painted in henna symbolizes companionship. Fish symbolize the eyes of women. Scorpions are thought to be like Cupid’s arrow; they are romantic images in Hindu mythology.

The symbols of astrology can also be used in mehndi. What sign are you? This is one of the ways that mehndi opens doors to new worlds for the artists that create it. Ideas and images will occur to you intuitively, and then you might want to go back and study them. Artists of all mediums find that they do not always know what they are going to create beforehand. Often they draw, paint or write a poem and later realize that their work relates to concepts or ideas that were somehow stored in their unconscious. Jung believed that there is a storehouse of archetypes in the collective unconscious. An archetype is an important idea, concept or image that reoccurs in our minds (and our various cultures) and helps us to better understand ourselves. Jung also believed that archetypes are shared by people across cultures and through generations. The collective unconscious is a board term that describes the “place” where the archetypes that we share are stored. It is not really a place, of course, but if you think of it that way it might be easier to understand.

Water is another common symbol in mehndi. Some people believe that water symbolizes the unconscious itself. It also can represent women, the moon, and our emotions. You can paint waves on the skin (lahariya designs) or small clusters of dots called bundakis, which represent falling rain. They symbolize the love a woman expresses for her husband and in-laws. Lahariya designs represent deep emotion and ecstasy. These designs were often painted on windows who jumped on funeral pyres to die with their husbands. As you create your own designs, you can learn about these images and make them your own. This process of appropriation is used by artists to make new meaning from ancient symbols. Appropriating the lahariya symbol would mean using it symbolize something positive and something meaningful to you. Perhaps you are mourning a relationship but know you would never give up your life for a boyfriend or girlfriend. Painting waves on the skin, for you, would mean the opposite of jumping on the funeral pyre of your lost loved one. Instead, it would symbolize the new enriched life you will lead without him or he.

The lotus is a flower that grows out of the mud or water in and around India. It is the most symbolic form of plant life for many Eastern religions, and it appears over and over again in religious art. It symbolizes the Self rising up through the unconscious, growing from darkness into light. The Hindus associate the lotus with the goddess Lakshmi. The Buddhists see the lotus as a symbol of purity because its petals and leaves do not show any evidence of the mud from which it grows. It symbolizes life itself. The flower signifies all that grows from the earth, and it has come to mean creativity as well as reproduction.

The lotus is often depicted as an eight-petaled flowers. The outer layers can increase in multiples of four. The petals of the lotus can be round or pointed. You can draw single petals if you choose to. As Loretta Roome says, there is no right or wrong way to paint a lotus. It can float horizontally or hang from a vine. Discover it for yourself as you paint it.

A famous Swiss psychologist named Carl Jung, which is pronounced yoong. Explored the concept of the mandala in depth. A mandala is an image of form within form. Often it is shaped like a circle, but it can be any shape. Mandalas have concentric patterns that relate back to a center point. In ancient India, a form of mandala called the yantra was used by yogis as a tool for meditation. Jung used the mandala as a tool in psycho therapeutic practice. Many henna painters use mandalas in their work.

There is a great deal to be learned from the ancient designs that have been passed down from generation to generation by the women of the East. One of the incredible things that you will discover as you look at the symbols of various cultures is that human beings seem to share a secret language of symbols, even if our oral and written language is very different. The unconscious meanings of symbols that you may encounter every day are often hidden in mehndi designs. Scientists have studied many of the symbols of ancient India and Egypt. They have found, for instance, that some of these symbols resemble fractal geometry and the shapes of cells of the body. There were no microscopes in ancient times, but perhaps the makers of mehndi intuitively knew what they were painting.

There are certain basic forms that you should know before you move into the more complex designs. According to the texts of ancient India, all reality grows from the bija (kernel or seed). Have you seen Indian women wearing bindis? They are small jewels or dots makeup worn in the center of the forehead to symbolize the opening of the third eye. (They have grown super trendy over the past few years in the United States. In a last chapter, we will look at bindis as an example of temporary body art.) The bindu is a point of Supreme Reality for Hindus. It is the place where everything begins and ends. You will always start your designs from the bija. That just means you are starting from the beginning. Some of the basic forms you will use are the line (rekha) and the angle (kona). The angle is simply the joining of two straight lines. Once you have mastered painting a straight line with the applicator (which is not as easy as expert henna painters make it look), you can begin making some geometric shapes rich in meaning. The first is the trikona, or triangle. A triangle with its point facing north is connected to the male principle, or Shiva. A downward pointing triangle indicates the female principle, or Shakti. The joining of these two symbols becomes the satkona, or the six-pointed star. This symbol resembles the Jewish Star of David. It symbolizes the merging of masculine and feminine energies. It is connected also to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. The diamond (vajra) symbolizes fire, water, earth, air, and the heavens. Pentagrams are worn by some people as symbols of protection.

Many contemporary mehndi artists are already visual artists when they discover henna painting. Even if you do not paint or draw, that should not stop you from experimenting with henna design. Let your creative spirit soar. This is a time to get in touch with your intuition. Perhaps you or the person you are painting will want a traditional design for luck or romance. If you become an expert at designing the symbols, you can grant the wishes of people who want traditional mehndi or small tattoo designs on their skin. If the person you are painting does not have a particular request, look at him or her and ask questions. Find out why this person wants to be painted. What do you think he or she needs? Play with shapes and lines. Remember when you were in nursery school and the teacher let you finger paint? It felt pretty free, did not it? Try to feel that freedom again as you paint with henna. That does not mean that you should smear the paste haphazardly, of course. You should be careful and meticulous. But don’t let yourself be held back by convention. You are part of the new generation of henna artist, and the designs you create will be part of the lexicon of designs that painters of the next generation will look at and learn from.

Many women exfoliate the night before getting mehndi. You can use a loofah to do this. It is also suggested that you shave or wax the area you intend to paint (if it is a hairy area). Hair removal is not a necessity; it is just that the henna sometimes stains better on hairless skin. It is also important to moisturize the area very well. Do this about a week in advance of being painted, but not on the same day you are being painted.

Beyond prepping your skin, you will have to make some other arrangements before being painted with henna. If you plan to be painted on the insides of your hands, you can forget about using them for much of anything until after you have scrapped off the dried paste. Many Eastern women actually fast the night before being painted so they will not have to use the bathroom. You do not need to go to that extreme, but if you plan to get henna on the palms of you hands, make sure that you will not be driving, cutting up food, washing dishes, or whatever else you usually do with your hands. It helps if you treat the time you have henna on your hands as a short vacation. Think of it as time for you and only you. It also helps to have a person you are really close with around to assist you, like a boyfriend, a sister, or your mom. The next time, they can get henna painted on them and receive royal treatment from you!

Don’t forget that you can paint yourself, too! You can either paint one hand at a time or paint you feet. It is a little tricky to do this, but it gets easier with practice. Most people think mehndi is more fun when it is shared.