Dichroic Reflections

henna concerns

So. I got a henna tattoo Sunday, as I think I mentioned earlier. (It's not really
a tattoo, of course, but I don't know what else to call it -- bodyart? Anyway.)
It's a band around my left upper arm made of small swirls. I was going for a
vaguely Celtic effect, but it came out looking, from a distance, a little like
barbed wire (bobwar, for any Texans reading this). Oh, well. Not exactly the
effect I intended. ("I want to look like a bad-ass, but I was too big a weenie to
get a real tattoo.") I'll just have to hope people look close enough to see the
little swirls. Unlike a tattoo, it doesn't go all the way around my arm. For some
odd reason, the front innermost swirl is lighter than the rest –- maybe it got
less henna, or I missed it with the lemon juice I put on, or the skin's just
thinner there.

I was told to keep it oiled constantly for the first two days, to help it get darker, and "for maintenance" after that. (This is one reason it doesn't go all the way around my arm – so I don't get oil on my
clothes.) I was supposed to use olive oil, because it's "thicker", for the first
day, then any oil after that. So being the conscientious henna-wearer I am, I
brought a small bottle of massage oil into work. If they ever give us our own
masseurs in the office, I'm prepared. This one is supposed to smell like wild
chamomile, which I can't vouch for, but it does smell better than olive oil.

Now, here's the odd part: the oil is in a little bottle with a
spout that seals, like a shampoo bottle. I put the bottle in a baggie, for extra
protection (for all my other stuff). Every time I use it, I wipe down the bottle.
So why, even when it's just sitting on my desk, is the bottle all oily whenever I
take it out? I've even wiped down the inside of the baggie, but it doesn't seem to help. It's as it the oil just burbles up and seeps through the seal when I'm not
watching.

Rudder's comment last night was that the henna isn't as colorful and detailed as a real tattoo. I explained that henna designs aren't trying to be real tattoos, that they come from a long history of body decoration. He didn't buy it: "I think I like real tattoos better". I'm not quite sure what to make of that, considering that he's never quite understood why anyone would want to decorate their body permanently, with tattoos or piercings.

He has odd tastes anyway, though. This is, after all, the guy that was positively drooling over the Mega Mover last Sunday, when we went to look at RVs:

The deal was, if he waited while I got the henna-ing done, I'd listen to him talk about the Mega Mover as much as he liked. I still think a normal fifth-wheeler toyhauler would make more sense for what we want, though.