I was mislead as a child to believe that mehndi isn’t for me. Something I felt an ancestral pull towards, something that I was hypnotised by, wasn’t for me because of the body I was born in. Henna, mehndi and other natural plant based stains, used to decorate the body, have existed for over ten thousand years all over the world. Gender is not a prerequisite for decorating your body. To have your body treated as a canvas. We all deserve to be loved as a work of art, our bodies as a work of art. To sit and experience, the cooling, divine and meditative feeling of someone painting your body for hours, with a substance that comes from the earth. It is sad, to think that was stolen from me. But I have an indescribable, undying connection to the ritual of mehndi. As a child I sat for hours watching women in my family have their palms and arms decorated, listening to my grandma talk about applying it with friends, straight from the leaves of the hina plant. I almost felt as though it was something I missed having done, rather than something I’d never experienced. They say the depth of the stain, says a lot about you. Although this may be my first time having henna applied like this, clearly I am not deprived. Henna by @huqthat Taken by @w3b_st4r