Thread by @Delafina777

So my (Moroccan) rabbi was like, "we're celebrating Maimuna this year as a community and I was thinking we'd do henna and we could incorporate Hebrew words expressing our hopes and intentions for the new year and you're good at design so can you help?"

And on one hand, that sounds super-cool! and on the other, I'm immediately nervous like, um, I am very much a white woman who knows nothing about henna-ing and how do I not fuck this up?

So I start googling like okay, what do the different designs mean? (That info is not easy to find, btw.) What are the differences between Moroccan designs and Indian designs? Are there specific patterns for specific occasions, vs patterns that are purely decorative?

(And yes, I'm aware that many cultures throughout history have used henna to decorate their bodies and it's not automatically appropriation, but I want to be sure in finding patterns for inspiration that I'm not accidentally choosing any that have specific cultural meaning.)

So anyway, I am WAAAAAAAAAY down a rabbit hole trying to parse out what makes Moroccan henna designs different and what the meaning of the patterns I'm looking at is and whatever and I come across an article entitled "The Branding of a Gullible Tourist."

And I'm like, okay, I wonder if this is a story like the time a non-Jewish dude went to a Jewish tattoo artist and was like "I want a tattoo that means 'love' in Hebrew" and walked out happily with a tattoo that said "matzah."

But no, dear reader, no it was not. It was utterly insufferable. Not going to link it here, but you can google it if you're feeling masochistic.

Anyway, given that the only non-digital ornamentation design I've done is... puffy paint on fabric, I'm also kind of terrified of screwing up drawing designs on other people's skin.

So, anyone who's a henna expert--are there any resources you can point me to to help me parse dos and don'ts as far as patterns? My googling is getting me a lot of FESTIVAL HENNA!!!! stuff and I'm feeling like I don't know the right search terms.

Also wow this rabbit hole has led some weirdly specific places, like one of the first things you get when you start searching for "Jewish henna" is a book called "Jewish Patterns from Kurdish Folk Art."