The Stuff

It began when we spotted a sign outside of Aahs in Santa Monica, heralding the arrival of do-it-yourself henna tattoo kits.

Inside, we found a choice of five kits with stencils, as well as a book of designs for those adventurous enough to tackle this thing freehand. “Very popular,” said store manager Willa Grady of the kits. We settled on a box labeled Mehndi Body Art--$15 including two stencils, henna powder, directions and a plastic cone for applying.

For the uninitiated, mehndi is a 7,000-year-old form of body ornamentation that originated in Africa and made its way to India. Unlike the real thing, this tattoo wears off in a couple of weeks.

We mixed the henna powder with tea, as directed. We were supposed to have something the consistency of waffle batter, and we did.

But then things got a little trickier. For starters, our model is right-handed--and so was the intricately cut plastic stencil. But, being resourceful, she suggested a solution: She’d tattoo the left palm, which meant the stencil could be applied sticky-side-down, as directed.

The first pass was disastrous. The directions didn’t say how much henna paste to use and our model slathered it on too thickly.

But the second attempt was a modest success. This time she squeezed the paste onto the stencil in thin ribbons and smoothed it evenly over her left palm. The result was a respectable design. Because our model had to return to work, we cheated. We didn’t wait three hours for the henna to dry, nor did we dab on lemon juice to set the tattoo.

The consensus: kind of fun, but awfully messy. All in all, we’d opt for the costlier salon application.