NEWS STORY: Body painting rituals invite beauty from the gods

c. 1998 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ This past Valentine’s Day in New York’s posh SoHo neighborhood, bag-toting shoppers at Zona, a home-design and gift store, browsed among country furniture while in the back crowds formed around a long, wooden table covered with velvet cloths and burning candles. There, six artisans from the Mehndi […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ This past Valentine’s Day in New York’s posh SoHo neighborhood, bag-toting shoppers at Zona, a home-design and gift store, browsed among country furniture while in the back crowds formed around a long, wooden table covered with velvet cloths and burning candles.

There, six artisans from the Mehndi Project adorned the hands of seated clients with henna tattoos applied in tracery-like designs, part of a three-day”Love is a Mystery”celebration featuring tarot cards, palm readings and mehndi, the application of temporary henna tattoos.


Members of the Mehndi Project, a group of international mehndi artisans, were taking advantage of the recent trend of permanent tattoos and body piercing to share their interest in the traditional folk art form and to profit from their artistry. They regularly offer their services at private parties, galleries and restaurants around the city, charging from $5 to $250 for a range of tattoo coverage.

At the same time, however, the artists hope to re-infuse into the increasingly popular practice the element of spirituality _ a dimension many customers and even some native practitioners from India and North Africa no longer recognize.

According to Loretta Roome, the Mehndi Project leader who learned the art from an Indian immigrant, the elaborate body adornment reflected in mehndi painting is connected to worship.”Just as you beautify your home, you beautify your body,”she said.”You invite beauty and prosperity from the gods.” Henna ceremonies often precede traditional Hindu, Muslim, and even some Jewish weddings. The bride’s hands and feet are painted with intricately detailed designs using a bitter-scented paste made of dried and crushed henna leaves. The henna plant stains the skin in a spectrum of colors from cherry-red to deep auburn or black, depending on the origin and strength of the dye. The designs fade after a number of weeks.

Roome said in societies where mehndi is traditionally practiced, marriages are often scheduled to coincide with ovulation.”That’s part of the intention,”she said.”It’s a fertility rite. The henna is the color of blood, representing the breaking of the hymen. In fact, Muslim’s call mehndi `love juice.'” The henna coloring also has symbolic significance because in many Eastern traditions, red is the color of power and fertility. The design itself is important, too.

Roome, 35, who helped bring mehndi to the American public’s attention with a 1996 exhibition at a New York art gallery, said the ceremony is”the moment a woman celebrates her married status. The henna is truly an expression of how she feels for her husband. The designs are a prayer for the husband’s long life and health.” Popular traditional motifs include a pitcher, which represents prosperity, and a scorpion, for passion.

Mehndi ceremonies also accompany other events such as New Year’s celebrations, baby showers, and Muslim ‘Eid and Hindu Devali festivals.

The artisans at Zona took advantage of the romantic atmosphere of Valentine’s Day to promote another one of the mystical aspects of mehndi tattoos _ placing initials into the intricate design.


Sangieta Patel, a native of the Indian province of Gujarat, for example, incorporated the initials”E.D.”into the flowering vine she painted onto Jennifer Rabin’s finger, refining errant lines with the point of a porcupine quill. She told Rabin that if a groom can find his initials among the scrolls and arabesques, it means the marriage was meant to be.

The 5,000-year-old practice has also developed a certain cachet among pop singers and actresses, such as Madonna, whose penchant for flamboyant adornment and for transforming religious symbols into fashion statements is made-to-order for henna painting. The singer’s video for her newest single,”Frozen,”features close-ups of her decorated palms.

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In the case of mehndi, Madonna follows the lead of other celebrities in adopting the culture of the Middle East. Gwen Stefani, the lead singer of the ska-pop band No Doubt, came on the scene sporting a sparkling bindi on her forehead. The decoration, commonly worn by Indian women, once indicated marital status. And, of course, the Beatles met with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967 dressed in Indian robes and strumming sitars.

Mehndi is already catching on. Celebrities have appeared on television and in fashion magazines bearing henna designs. A photograph in a recent”Rolling Stone”features Sting and his wife barefoot and tattooed at a body-painting party in New York. Numerous web pages dedicated to the art, including a site for mehndi fans seeking artists in their areas, attest to the growing fad.

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While the technique’s exact origins are unknown, Roome, whose book,”Mehndi: the Timeless Art of Henna Tattoo,”is due out this summer from St. Martin’s Press, said she believes the custom spread from India throughout the Middle East during the 16th century.”The dense designs you usually see are Indian,”she said. Muslim mehndi artists, on the other hand, generally favor more geometric motifs, perhaps reflecting the non-representational patterns of Islamic art.

The women also appropriate other religions’ spiritual symbols into their designs. Judy Anne Olson, for example, uses runes and hieroglyphs, images drawn from her interest in mythology. The 28-year-old Florida native said she sees mehndi as an expression of self and a very intimate process.


But in the Indian and Pakistani enclave of Jackson Heights, Queens, beauty salons advertise”temporary henna tattoos”in window signs and on awnings in an effort to cash-in on the popularity of permanent tattoos.

Business at Menka Beauty Salon doubled after a magazine feature on mehndi appeared last June. According to Anil Merchant, the salon’s manager, the tradition had religious significance”in ancient times.”Now people do it”just for fun,”he said.

Gulzar Rayani of the nearby Gulzar Beauty Salon also denied any religious component.”Anyone can do it,”she said.

Nevertheless, Olson lamented her clients’ disinterest in mehndi’s cultural aspect and insensitivity to its spiritual significance. Instead, she said, most people look at mehndi simply as a form of superficial adornment.”You know, they’ll say, `Give me a scorpion!’ because they think it’ll look good with their tattoo.”

DEA END GOLDMAN

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