Posted on 12/10/2018 6:39:21 AM PST by BenLurkin
Full Title: Three-year-old girl is 'scarred for life' after she was left with chemical burns up her arm when she got henna tattoo as a 'holiday treat' in Turkey
Freja Ellis was on a family break in Antalya, Turkey, when she got the temporary tattoo with permission from her mother Marlana, 32.
But shortly after arriving back in the UK, Freja, from Herne Bay, Kent, complained the cat pattern - which stretched from her wrist to her elbow - was itchy.
'We were entirely unaware of the dangers and want to make sure other parents know what can happen so this doesn't affect other children.'
Her mother, a nurse, said she had a great holiday with her young daughter and Freja's grandmother, Julie Ellis, 56.
'The shop seemed really clean and tidy and the man who did the tattoo even wiped Freja's arm with an antiseptic wipe beforehand so I wasn't too worried.
'It took 10 minutes to complete and then we had to wait 10 minutes for it to dry - she was totally made up with it and it wasn't until we got home that we realised there was something wrong.'
'We saw the duty doctor and I showed him a picture of the tattoo when it had been done.
'Straight away he identified it as black henna. I didn't realise it was different to any other type of henna. 'He explained it contains chemicals which aren't meant to be used and told me that it'd burnt her skin.
'I was shocked when he diagnosed it as a chemical burn.
A chemical called para-phenylenediamine, or PPD, is added to henna to make the tattoos darker and increase their lifespan.
Freja began complained of itching and burning sensation just days later.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“Her mother, a nurse”
You’d think a nurse would know better than to let a stranger in a strange land imprint an unknown substance on her childs skin......sheesh
I knew it was a female parent before I even read the article . Its always vanity first
Sounds like they put a dressing on it and left it for a week. They turned a rash into an infection. It was stupid to get a tattoo. It was stupid to over medicate. It was stupid to not check the bandages. Lots of stupid. But let’s blame the barber for the kid’s allergy.
One would think a henna temporary tattoo would be fairly safe. They basically just draw it on and let it dry. I guess the child was allergic to it. While the procedure sounds safe, I don’t know why the mother would want such a young child to have any kind of tattoo on such delicate skin.
I bet that’s grandma and that mom took the pic.
You must not have read the whole story:
“Straight away he (the doctor) identified it as black henna. I didn’t realise it was different to any other type of henna. ‘He explained it contains chemicals which aren’t meant to be used and told me that it’d burnt her skin.”
What kind of moronic “nurse” would allow this to be done to her 3 yr old child? A permanent tattoo on a 3 yr old is stupid enough, and to do it in a foreign land and then cover up the problem for a week .... this “mother” is unfit.
The people who sell the henna that I use offer it in different colors for differing shades of hair (some people dye the hair on their head with it). I use one that results in dark brown. They also have henna for black hair. Maybe it is the "black henna"?
Why is that shocking?
This is nothing new. Apparently the FDA kicked the can. Government at work. /s
See references below, including a US case cited in a September 2018 article.
Temporary Black Henna Tattoos and Sensitization to para-Phenylenediamine (PPD): Two Paediatric Case Reports and a Review of the Literature
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409622/
In Some Henna Tattoos, a Harmful Dye
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/health/12henna.html
Temporary Tattoos, Henna/Mehndi, and “Black Henna”: Fact Sheet
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/productsingredients/products/ucm108569.htm
Black Henna ‘Tattoos’ May Leave Lasting Damage
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=124737&page=1
And never fear: The FDA sent a ‘warning letter’ to the manufacturer in 2006:
https://wayback.archive-it.org/.../War.../2006/ucm076032.htm
To be clear, I had no idea myself that these temporary tattoos were potentially-harmful or that artists were using a compound approved only for use in hair dye.
I don’t have kids, but I know that they were doing these at our recent county fair and I just checked: In my neck of the woods I can find no ‘local’ regulations or, for that matter, state regulations.
The OP source may be for a case on foreign soil, but this is genuinely a problem in the states as well.
See my cited FDA ‘warning letter’ and the FDA page on the topic for more insults to injury.
Para-phenylenediamine is the chemical basis for most 'permanent' hair dyes, regardless of their color. The exceptions are temporary dyes that are fully removed with the next washing (eg. your kid wants blue hair for the day), semipermanent wash in colors (most famously the old 'Grecian Formula') and henna used alone. The temporary dyes are free of PPD; their only risk is to one's fashion sense. The semipermanent ones classically worked by gradually adding lead acetate to your hair. Used for decades and blessed as safe by the FDA as recently as 1980, lead acetate has been banned by the Trump FDA in the last month or so. Its former products have switched to other chemicals, most often bismuth citrate, but a quick internet search suggests the alternatives don't work as well. This dermatologist just learned of that ban today. Henna is a plant based 'natural' product and it permanently colors the hair without washing out. However, by itself, it only produces one color, famously the trademark color of that natural blond, Lucille Ball!
PPD is one of the more common causes of allergic contact dermatitis and can produce strong reactions. It's only a problem as a liquid, until it's set. Once set and dyed the colored hair doesn't cause allergic reactions. Allergic contact dermatitis to henna has been reported, but is rare. Dying your hair with henna works well — if you want to look like Lucy. Henna has long been used to temporarily stain the skin (a 'temporary tattoo'). Used alone it gives a reddish brown color, which isn't very dark and wears off fairly soon. Adulterating 'henna' with PPD produces a darker color which lasts longer, which those wanting a 'temporary tattoo' prefer... unless they become allergic and this happens. 'Dark Henna' really isn't a different form of henna, it's henna PLUS dark (PPD) and in many cases most of color is from PPD. As PPD allergies are common, reactions like this are common to dermatologists. They're normally treated like similar amounts of poison ivy rashes, combined with avoiding PPD in the future. Which for many eventually means embracing their eventually grey hair.
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