I let my daughter get a henna tattoo — now I’m scared she’s scarred for life
A mom from England is warning other parents about the dangers of henna tattoos with “black ink” — as she claims one left her daughter with burns and a scar.
Kirsty Newton, 37, allowed her 7-year-old daughter, Matilda, to get a tattoo of a butterfly at their hotel while on a $5,000 vacation in Turkey last month.
But instead of a pretty memory of the all-inclusive trip, Newton’s daughter was left hospitalized with an oozing chemical burn in the shape of a butterfly, Kennedy News and Media reports.
“I’m worried that it’s going to scar for life,” Newton told the outlet. “It’s awful and concerning, especially if it scars.”
The ordeal began when the family of four returned home to England from their vacation, as Newton noticed that Matilda’s 3-centimeter-tall tattoo began to grow red and itchy and eventually burn her skin.
When the raised burns began to crack and bleed, Newton rushed her daughter to the hospital, where doctors confirmed she was having an allergic reaction to black henna.
“The hospital said it was an allergic reaction to the black henna used, and she won’t be able to use hair dye when she’s older,” Newton told the outlet.
“She had been sick on Thursday night [before we went to get her medication], which the doctors said could have been part of the reaction, and she had a rash on her tummy too.”
To help heal her skin, the youngster was given allergy pills, as well as topical steroid and antibiotic creams.
Typically, traditional henna tattoos come from the henna plant, which is used to create a reddish-brown, natural dye applied to the skin, according to Good Housekeeping.
The leaves of the plant are dried and crushed to make a paste, the outlet reported, with certain designs painted on the skin in honor of celebratory events in some cultures.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, some ingredients are added to henna dye to transform it into other colors, marketed as “black” or “blue” henna.
A common ingredient added into these dyes is a coal-tar hair dye that contains p-phenylenediamine (PPD), which can cause severe allergic reactions in some people.
Newton’s mom believes PPD is what caused her daughter’s reaction.
“We weren’t informed it was black henna, the tattoo stand just advertised henna tattoos,” Newton claimed to Kennedy News.
To test if the dye is safe for them, sometimes people use what is called a patch test, where only a small part of the skin receives black henna.
Newton said that wasn’t offered to her daughter.
Newton hopes that the medicine given to Matilda will start working to heal the burn, but in the meantime, she took to social media to post pictures and warn other parents about the dangers of henna tattoos.
“Please be cautious when letting your children get henna tattoos,” Newton said. “I want to raise awareness of what happened as lots of children at the hotel were getting henna done.”
She added: “People need to know what happened and make sure they have skin tests done if they do have a tattoo before having one of these done.”
