Mehndi is an ancient art form in India and was originally used on brides before their wedding ceremony. It was also one of the things I wanted to have done while visiting India. As luck would have it, Ramesh's aunt knew a woman who could come to the house to do this for me. It's not a quick process by any means and required a lot of patience on my part- this felt like my longest day in India outside of the first day we landed. The henna is applied using a cone-like tube with a metal tip and it was applied free form, meaning she didn't use a template or any guide to help her draw. The application itself only took about an hour and a half. It was the waiting three and a half hours for it to dry that was the long part. I couldn't use my hands during that time (it was quite humorous actually... Ramesh had to feed me some snacks and find me a straw for my soda!). Once the time was up, I scrubbed the henna off with a dry towel to reveal a light orange "tattoo". The color darkens over 24-72 hours to a deep orange as it oxidizes.
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