Are you going to get a new look this festive season?  Bold colours, latest designs, deep necks, short lengths? Or would you rather have your arms decorated with oriental designs in henna and crystals, pierce your belly button, tattoo dragons and henna motifs on your back and landscape nails? Take your pick!

 The buzz word today is to look young and be noticed.  Henna lends drama and mystique and is fashionable. Henna, popularly called mehndi, is seen as giving an extra  dimension to our presence, making the ordinary seem special, and the special, extraordinary.

 It has rolled down the years as a symbol of tradition, festivity and rituals and today in its reincarnated form, makes a strong fashion statement. In a similar manner tattooing, an ancient ritual with tribal communities has also been reinvented for its mystical properties. Top it all with landscaped nails, and the makeover is complete.  
 
 Gone are the days when henna was just a family function for weddings and some festivals like  teej and karvachauth. Today mehndi has become a versatile wedding statement not only for the bride but also for her guests and is accompanied by stage performances, attending DJs and other theatrics. The henna designers and creative artists who work with the parlours and nail bars are overwhelmed with this ever changing, unpredictable and always-on-the-go fashion  world that we live in ,where designs and style get redefined every hour. Out goes the ordinary and in its place are innovative designs, sometimes hovering on the bizarre.

 Deepak, who runs 'Deepak Mehndi', a well known mehndi outlet of Kolkata, finds the mehndi market booming with every wedding that takes place and says that there are many innovations today using  coloured mehndi, the colour being darker than usual, sequin mehndi, tattoo mehndi, mehndi with glitter etc.  "Today it is not only the hands, but almost the whole body that gets henna motifs. It is the full arms, back of the hands, waist, naval and the back too. Come to the lower limbs and from the feet it goes up right up to the ankles and the legs," says Deepak. 

Colour and glitter

For the bride there is a typical design which is intricate in nature and has standard motifs; writing names of the bride and the bridegroom , drawing intricate motifs where fish figures prominently as a good omen, landscapes etc. If your dil demands more , try by sticking in small crystal pieces. It does look beautiful! Tattoo is not the painful piercing needle but an improvisation with henna by adding colour and also glitter .

This tattoo mehndi is applied very intricately with hands and for short cuts with  stickers, around the naval and behind the back above the choli knot. The orient rules in designs. This sure would have raised eyebrows some years ago but is accepted today as a conscientious attempt to look good.

 The dulhan variety with dulha dulhan costs Rs. 2,100 for both hands stretching right up to the arms and both feet right up to the ankles. 'Arabian mehndi', especially for the guests which is like an outline with one motif in the centre , costs Rs 100 only. 'Tattoo mehndi', a rage today costs Rs. 1,100 .

Body detailing is the global buzz. Like henna and tattoo this too requires a set of deft fingers , an observant eye, clever balance of colours and patience. Bridgette Jones' 'Fashion Salon' in Kolkata  houses a nail station which offers a touch of luxury with hand-painted nail art, bio-gel nails,  pearl finish nails and half moon for the tips of the nails. Bridgette has an amazing array of nail art forms. Lack of  time?  She suggests stickers that serve as nail tattoos with separate designs that adorn the tips.

Henna has indeed stepped out from traditional wedding rituals to the high fashion street today.

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