Traditional tattooing accompanying henna

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on November 18, 1999 at 01:06:06:

In Reply to: Tattoos!!! posted by Precious on November 17, 1999 at 23:19:16:

If you want a home-made tattoo gun, you may as well go totally
traditional. Here's how. (And, for heaven's sake, just appreciate
this for intellectual and folkloric content, or maybe try patterns out
with waterproof eyeliner!)

Traditional tattooing in henna using countries, accompanied henna as a
women's ornamentation. The traditional tools were cactus spines dipped
in soot and poked repeatedly into the skin and needles threaded
through the skin with soot-dipped thread. Particularly favored as a
tattoo ink in Sudan is soot mixed with crocodile bile, or in absence
of a crocodile's gallbladder, you can use Nile perch gall. Tattooing
the lower lip (very sexy for cultures that regard lip nibbling as
crucial foreplay) with this method is a tad uncomfortable as the lip
swells triple its size.....

I have 27 of these women's facial tattoos now, dating back to 1700 BCE
if you want them, from Persia to North Africa....email me if you want
'em. These patterns seem to date from early Goddess worship, and were
specifically deplored by the Talmud. They were are done to avert evil
and enhance beauty, and are near dissappearance in their tribal
cultures today. Tattooing is forbidden by Islam, but harquus patterns
seem to be continuing these traditions to a certain extent, and
harquus was always an alternative to facial tattooing.

Actually I have been very suprised about how much tattooing
accompanied henna in Persia; women had full-body floral tattooing, or
at least flowering branch and tree of life patterns all over the
chest! Backs of hands were tattoed with stars and flowers to
accompany hennaed hands. Such was very fashionable in the upper
classes in the 17th and 18th centuries. In India, one tribal group of
ladies (Don't remember just offhand, Ribari, I think) believe that
their back-of-hand tattoos insure fertility, and that if they do not
have these tattoos, they will be reincarnated as camels. In
Rajashthan, brides have their throats tattoed with symbols for luck
and protection, along with their bridal hennaeing. These ladie's
tolerance for pain must have be very high , and primo immune systems
required for fighting the infections.

Regarding the folk belief that these chin tattoos would make your
husband listen to you ... A management-trained lady told me that if
you look at the mouth when a person is speaking, you will retain far
more of the conversation correctly in memory than if you look at the
eyes, and if you only listen and not look, you will remember very
little of what's spoken. There's something to that old wive's tale!

Follow-ups:

• focus on mouth (off-topic) Anon 17:03:42 11/18/99 (2)
  • Re: focus on mouth (off-topic) CAtherine Cartwright JOnes 17:50:32 11/18/99 (1)
    • Re: focus on mouth (off-topic) Henna Diva 19:33:31 11/18/99 (0)