And at the Southernmost Point.

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: I was recently in Key West, Florida (90 miles to Cuba!) and there : were about ten black death artists, and one natural, just plain red : henna salon. The black death artists all had very similar designs, : all inspired by modern tattoos. There were crowds of people around : all of them. When I checked one of them out, there was a very nervous : and very leary woman sitting in the stool, trying to get up the : courage to get one. I was with my parents (neither of them are hardly : enthused with henna) so I was too affraid to say anything, lest the : phony scam artist call the police and say I was 'disturbing the : peace'. I wanted to get talking to them, but they all looked like : such grim and nasty people, I was frankly affraid of them. : The one natural henna salon didn't get nearly as much bussines as the : black paste o' deathers. I think they were using Earth Henna. (I : tried it once, it was crappy) They should have been using Kenzi's, or : Castle Art, or Jamila, or SOMETHING. They also did not pay much : attention to detail. They were using Jaquard bottles and tips, but : the ends of the tips (the little round part that determines the : thickness of the line) had been sawed off! So, the result was a vert : thick line, which could only be varied by the ammount of pressure. I : started talking to one of them, asking if he ever used the uncut : tips, and if he knew that he would be able to work more easily with : them, but my mom quickly threw in a "SSSHHHHHH!!!!" I guess she : thought I was being rude or something. This place looked like a : tattoo parlor, with pattern sheets pasted all over the walls. I even : noticed one of Catherine's patterns, that lovely sunflower design : from Henna From Head To Toe!. : It was really awful having to restrain myself, especially when one : black death artist said "It's perfectly safe, I use it on my : children." I was tempted to scream "YOU ARE A TERRIBLE MOTHER! DO YOU : KNOW THAT YOU ARE SLOWLY KILLING YOUR CHILDREN AND YOURSELF!!!! : WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!!! jUST GO CRAWL UNDER A ROCK AND : DISSAPEAR!!!!!!!" But since I was with my parents, and had nobody to : back me up, I didn't. My dad thinks that PPD is just a big joke, and : my mom thinks it's not as bad as it is. I wish I had a henna friend : with me to back me up, but I didn't, so there was really nothing I : could do. Jeez, I'm so glad I have you guys to talk to!!! : ~Nick : : I have been silent for a few days because I was on vacation in : Montreal, a city which should now be called the City of Black Death. : I saw quite a few henna artists there (probably 20 total) and every : single one of them was using black henna. It was quite incredible. : And one thing that really struck me was the smell of black henna...it : was the usual wonderful smell of natural henna but mixed with that : awful and unmistakable smell of hair dye/die. That might be : something, Catherine, toadd to your list of things to look for when : distinguishing black henna from natural henna. : : I started checking out the henna artists while just walking around : town and right away some very familiar designs jumped out at me. The : ones I saw first were Liisa's beautiful brushwork designs (my fave is : the dolphin). One person had the whole gamut plus some that I hadn't : seen before. I saw a few other familiar designs, even a few of mine, : but usually ones that I had copied from elsewhere. : : Catherine, one guy had, among his designs, printouts of all your : desgins on your website! He saw me looking at them and said that I : was looking at very ancient henna designs from his part of the world : (he was Iraqi). I said, in a friendly way, "I know the woman who did : these designs!" and he said, "that's impossible unless she lived : 5,000 years ago!" ha ha ha! I know you always say how old you are : Catherine, but you don't look a day over 4,500! : : While looking at all these designs I also watched the artists : working. They were doing great business with all the tourists filing : by. They were all using paste o' death and applying it with a : syringe. They held the tip of the syringe like a pen and then used : the other hand to push the plunger down. Seemed very cumbersome to : use two hands. I also noticed that a lot of them had their : fingertips stained black from the "henna" they were using. Another : way for it to get into their systems. : : I was appalled at how much black henna was flowing but I felt shy : about saying anything to them. My hubby engaged some of them in talk : of henna and made me show them my henna work (some fresh new stuff on : hand and arm). Most of them really liked the color and that got us : on the subject of black henna. One guy said that he used it because : people asked for it and everyone else was using it. I told him that : it was dangerous and he wasn't too open to that idea. He said that : it was just a rare allergy and that he tests each person before : applying the "henna". I told him that it wasn't an allergy and that : it often didn't show up for 2-3 weeks after application so a test : wouldn't work. He didn't agree so we just left it at that. He was : interested, however, in buying some of my henna so maybe he can be : swayed by some good stuff! I talked to another guy, the one with : Catherine's website pics. He also was impressed by the color of my : henna (sorry for tooting my own horn!) and that got us going with the : black henna discussion. He insisted that no one ever complained of a : problem with black henna; I explained that the reaction shows up 2-3 : weeks later and that most of his clients are tourists who aren't : going to bother to track him down to complain. That gave him pause : so I kept going and suggested to him that he was compromising his own : health by touching the stuff and that the health authorities in : several areas of the US were starting to crack down on the stuff. We : talked to a Moroccan woman henna artist, also using black henna, but : she was with a client and didn't have time to talk to us much. : : I think that if these people do order henna from me I am going to : put together a little package of pictures of black henna burns plus : the chemical warnings. It's tiring to have to explain this stuff : over and over again, but eventually I think it will get through.

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