In honor of the Year of the Dragon and as part of the team-building spirit of the events we undertook with our Manila and extended International product team I decided to join in and get a temporary Henna tattoo from the little booth they had in our resort hotel. It took them about 20 minutes to complete - done freehand by copying from their book of examples - and I was very pleased with the result; proudly displaying it for all to see on the boat ride back to the mainland (primarily so that it could dry and not get the Henna dye all over my new Porto Gallera T-shirt). Once we got back to the hotel I washed off the excess Henna to leave a lovely brown/black dragon coiling its way across my upper arm. I sent a picture of it to M and Neil showing it off and everyone that saw it marveled at it's beauty and how, if I flexed my bicep in just the right way, I could make it appear to roar.
This juvenile-ish behavior continued upon my return home to Kingsburg whereupon I would occasionally threaten Cornflake with it, expose it at opportune moments in order to get my way / make it clear that Meleena wasn't to mess with me regarding our choice of tv show/movie/restaurant/music in the car and generally make sure that as many people as possible got to see it in all its glory.
And so this continued for a couple of weeks until I woke up one morning last week and noticed that my shoulder was itchy. Upon further inspection I realized that it wasn't just itchy but that it was lumpy and that, in fact, the entire outline of the dragon itself had welted up so as to make it appear as if the dragon was attempting to extricate itself from my flesh, leave my body and begin a life all of its own here in California. I took a shower, scrubbed off the remaining Henna and realized that sure enough something was going on with my skin.
I waited a day or so to see if anything would change but the itching continued and the dragon-shaped swelling didn't subside and so I started to do a bit of research online - in the 21st century that basically just means I Googled the phrase 'Henna Tattoo Skin Irritation' - found a couple of articles along the lines of this one and pretty quickly began to get a little concerned.
And so it was that I made an appointment to visit our local doctor - yes, it was fun describing why I needed to see her to the receptionist over the phone - to see what she thought. When I met with her, after having a bit of a laugh about how it was lucky that I hadn't gone for anything offensive or jokey (a 'Hello Kitty' or a Skull-and-Crossbones or 'I Love Katy Perry', for example) we did get the slightly more serious part that there is a chance that I will be left with some degree of permanent scarring from the black chemical they put in the Henna mix. She prescribed a potent steroid ointment to help reduce the swelling and then asked if she could take a photo of it - I'm pretty sure it wasn't just for my medical records.And so it's Friday, 4 days after I started using the steroid ointment and the swelling has gone down, leaving me with a pretty visible pinkish colored dragon on my right arm. I remain optimistic that it will eventually fade away to nothing again but I have to ensure I avoid black henna tattoos in the future and anything else that includes the PPD chemical that is found in it - including hair dyes.
In the meantime, please consider this another one of those UlloaSullivan public services activities; the ones where we try something so that you don't have to. I would also like to say to my Mum and Dad - yes, I know you always said when we were growing up that you forbid us from riding motorcycles and from getting tattoos and I have listened to you on both accounts for all of my 40+ years; this really was just an accident.
But it is kind of a cool dragon, no? Want to see it roar? ;)
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