Henna Is Great Body Painting

Mehndi is an ancient art of body painting — popularly believed to have originated in India.

This centuries old ritual and art form is considered good luck in India, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

Traditionally, mehndi is a ritual for women — preparing them for special ceremonies like weddings, or to celebrate the birth of a child.

To this day, no Indian wedding is considered complete without mehndi — In fact, some hold the Mehndi Ceremony so sacred that unless the mother-in-law has applied the first dot of mehndi to the bride's hand (a symbolic blessing), the painting cannot go ahead!

In the West, mehndi decorations became fashionable in the late 1990s — they are sometimes called "henna tattoos".