By Cindy Ellen Russell, Star-Bulletin
Jennifer Vogt applies Hawaiian Henna to her
friend Michelle Higa's thumb.

Mehndi goes
Hawaiian

Henna tattoo tradition
gets a jolt of color from
local java and tea

By Nadine Kam
Assistant Features Editor

On the trendsetter's barometer, Hawaii's rise and fall depends on the global enthusiasm for surfing and aloha prints.

Our cool quotient usually goes up in the summer, and now we have one more contribution for bare-skin days. Tapping into the mehndi craze, Maui company Agape Design has come up with a body art kit that's distinctly local.

Mehndi is the 7,000-year-old Indian art of henna body painting, made current by such stars as Madonna, Demi Moore, Liv Tyler and Gwen Stefani. Agape has created Hawaiian Henna, a natural product that combines locally grown coffee and tea, henna and a little eucalyptus oil in a paste that is painted onto the body. The result is an instant and temporary tattoo.

The Hawaiian Henna and other mehndi kits are ideal for those who fear needles or commitment to a permanent tattoo, or for teens whose parents forbid this kind of expression. The henna will last up to three weeks on the feet and about one week on hands, which are subject to more frequent washing.

Agape creative director Janlisa Goo Potratz said that one kit, which sells for about $18, will last for six to eight applications, depending on the extent of the art work.

Potratz said most people do their own painting, but some organize paint parties with their friends. If your best friend happens to be a poor artist, Potratz says that the dye takes about 15 minutes to set, and she offers some words of comfort.

"You can excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and say, 'Oops, I washed my hand. I forgot about it.'"

Trying the kit, Michelle Higa, 16, found herself running to the sink only because she kept getting the dye on her fingers as she squeezed the green paste from its plastic mixing bag into the small bottle which would be used to apply the dye. Her fingers turned orange in about five minutes.

Once all the paste was transferred, she was quick to start painting a ringlet on an index finger and a large design on the top of her foot, following the sample art that come with the kit. The samples range from lacy Indian designs to images of Hawaiian kakau, or tattoos.

"If it doesn't look good I can always wear shoes," Higa said.

She was more hesitant about painting on her friend, Jennifer Vogt.

"She'll blame me if it looks bad."

"I don't care," Vogt said.

"Sure, that's what you say now."

The teens were actually unconcerned about mistakes, knowing they would be temporary. Experimentation, after all, is part of growing up.

Vogt said she wants to get a permanent tattoo on her back, but her mother discourages her from marring her skin, in case she chooses to become a model.

If her modeling ambition fails to pan out, she wants to be a cosmetologist and applied an assured hand to painting Higa's thumb.

"Girl, that's a lot of paint," Higa said, before remembering a makeup job Vogt did on her turned out OK.

"Just OK?"

"It came out GREAT!"

After the henna is applied, it looks like mud on the skin. It's dabbed with a lemon-sugar setting solution and is left on the skin for a minimum of 15 minutes. The longer it's left on, the more saturated the color once the mud is removed. According to Potratz, some people like to walk around wearing the dark mud because it's more dramatic.

The artistically challenged can always resort to using stencils, but Potratz said, from what's she's seen so far, "Most people do nice designs."

It is unusual for a design company to start pushing products of its own, but Agape Design's Janlisa Goo Potratz has always been out to "push the boundaries of what a design company can do."

On developing Hawaiian Henna, she said, "I thought, 'Why not?' We're entrepreneurs. We know all about marketing and packaging."

Those are two things Agape Design has excelled at, having earned several awards of excellence or merit in the local advertising industry's annual Pele Awards competitions.

Hawaiian Henna comes in a container about the size of Campbell's soup can. It is available on Oahu at Cotton Cargo, Shirokiya, Daiei and Long's Drugs stores. On Maui, it is available at Down to Earth, Celebrities Art Gallery and most beauty salons and beauty supply stores.