That is horrible. Is your son the only one with the reaction?

Out of the three of us, yes, he is the only one. My daughter just got a very thin outline one though - his was a big tribal looking thing with tons more ink than hers.

However, it is very upsetting to learn that this has been happening to people for years yet no one in any position of relevance is putting out any sort of warning about it. I wrote to Carnival already. It is seriously disturbing to me that they can spend tons of time and resources on educating their guests on how to avoid the perils of fake diamond vendors, however they do not see the need to let their guests know about something that could possibly kill them. The guests from the ship are just as likely to go into the jewelry stores as they are to go to the tattoo places. Everything is _right _there when you get off the ship.

Not that I am all hellbent on blaming them or anything - I am not holding them responsible for what happened, it is just that I've already been on the phone with them and they seem less than concerned about doing what they can to warn future guests. Which is irritating for the above mentioned reasons.

*edited for over rant-i-ness

Everytime I've ever experienced a henna tattoo person, its always been the medium transparent brown tone. I've never even heard of the extra dark, and apparently dangerous, modified henna. This is awful, Jamie. I hope he recovers with minimal issues. Man. I will keep this in mind and spread the word around.

I wish I would have read your article before I too went on a Carnival Cruise and my 7 year old son got a "temporary" tattoo by the same vendor and he now has the ugly scar. I am so worried that my son will be scarred for life and the damage that I might have allowed to his organs is unthinkable. Your son is in my prayers and please keep my son in your prayers. Please keep me posted as your son progresses. Thank you for the information.

This is so unfortunate. I am a real henna artist, and I know that myself and other genuine henna artists make it very clear to our customers that we use no PPD whatsoever in our mixes. Temporary Tattoos should be temporary. Its a shame that some people are so ignorant as to purposely sell henna with toxic chemicals. It makes me sick that they could be so cruel.
I wish the best for your son.

Hmmm ... I thought I had posted an update in here, but just realized that I never did. So I will do one now. People are still finding this entry on Google and I am glad because it may actually be helpful to someone in the future.

Several days after I posted that blog entry I realized that the treatment his pediatrician prescribed wasn't working at all. There was no progress being made and we were very unhappy. After more research and consulting with various people, I sought out a dermatologist who was finally able to help remedy the problem. Turns out the he needed to be on a steroid cream - the effects of the steroid cream were immediate and amazing - after almost 2 weeks of zero improvement whatsoever using the treatment I described in my blog entry, I applied his first application of steroid cream and saw about 75% improvement in the appearance on the infected area in less than 24 hours! I was extremely angry with his pediatrician at that point, but that isn't anything I need to go into here.

Anyway the GOOD NEWS is that after less than a week on the steroid cream his sores were completely healed. He still had white scars in the shape of the tattoo but after about 6 months or so even the scars entirely disappeared. We also learned that he has an allergy to PPD and got some information on what he needs to avoid contact with in the future to avoid a repeat scenario. Good info can be found here and here. Anyone that is effected with this reaction should definitely see a dermatologist or perhaps an allergist as soon as possible - that is where to get the best information about your particular case. I am only offering information here in hopes to help steer people to some useful information and ideas for getting help - I know when it was happening to us I was FRANTIC for information.

Thank you Alyssa for commenting here, hopefully the more information that can be published about the correct use of Henna will help increase the awareness of the dangers that exist with Black Henna.

HENNA IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE BLACK!!!!

I got a small henna tattoo on my leg 12 days ago today in Panama City, Fl. It looked cool and stayed on fine until last night. It started itching and when I realized I was scratching it, I turned on the light to see it looked like your picture above, except a lot smaller, like the size of a quarter. What should I do? Now, the middle of the day, all that's left is the red scar. The ink is almost gone. I'm going to try to find the name of the place I got it at. Any Suggestions of what I should say or anything? How to warn others?

I am a rookie henna artist and am doing some reaserch for a school paper. I have read about other cases and I am completely appalled at the fact that these so called 'artists' are filling their henna with PPD to enhance the color. I am very dead set in using only natural henna after I too had a minor swelling from a tattoo I got on the boardwalk in Rehobeth. I am so very sorry about what happened to your son.

Hi try using neem powder on your son's rash

neem is a herb

and can be used by anyone

it might help...it helped me

get rid of some bad rashes i got from

an alergy try it i hope it works

I'm very sorry for what happened

to your son but if he's other wise healthy

i think that is a very good sign I

hope the rash heals well

and becareful your unhappiness with the rash

might rub of on him and make it harder for him

I used to have rash problems when i was a kid so i was

depresed when people reacted strongly against a

rash.