Origins of Henna Tattoos

Video Transcript

"Henna's origins go back over three thousand years to Egypt. They?ve even found henna designs on Egyptian mummies, which is really fascinating to know that people were using body art as far back as ancient Egypt. The henna plant can be found all through the Middle East in very hot and dry climates such as Egypt, Arab countries, Morocco, India, it's very prolific throughout that region. The designs took the flavor of each country they developed in. Moroccan designs have more of an angular quality. Egyptian and Arabic designs are more flowing and floral, and the Indian designs resemble Indian architecture elements. There are many different styles of henna that developed as body art. It also had very strong origins in bridal decoration for Indian women as well as Moroccan women and is significant as sort of a rite of passage for a woman to wear henna art to show that she is now a mature woman."