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62 Food & Drug L.J. 779 (2007)
Henna Tattooing: Cultural Tradition Meets Regulation

handle is hein.journals/foodlj62 and id is 807 raw text is: HENNA TATTOOING: CULTURAL TRADITION MEETS REGULATION CARRIE GRIFFiN BASAS* I. INTRODUCTION Standards of personal beauty shape all cultures.' The word cosmetics is de- rived from kosm~tikos, meaning skilled in adornment.'2 Cosmetics have been developed and influenced by ethnic traditions and folklore, their roots spanning cultural, historical and political divides. What it means to be beautiful does not remain static, just as standards of beauty can be transported from one homeland to another.' In recent years, beauty enhancement has taken on more lasting dimensions. No longer are people content with simply applying eyeliner or blush to decorate the face.' Rather, the body is more and more a canvas to be painted in vibrant and innovative ways.5 The body art industry is one of the nation's fastest expanding business sectors. According to a June 2006 study by the American Academy of Dermatology, about half of all twenty-somethings have tattoos or body piercings (other than just pierced ears).6 Even the more temporary body arts-such as henna tattoos, body stickers and temporary tattoos-are booming rapidly. Temporary body art has grown into a $100 million annual business, with teens composing the largest demographic of supporters.7 Options for bodily decoration and expression are increasing. Participants are no longer part of a cultural underground in the United States.' Individuals may choose to openly decorate their bodies with permanent tattoos, or they can try on designs for size in some of the more temporary forms, such as henna tattooing (sometimes called mehndi), to be discussed in this paper.9 As tattooing in either form becomes She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University, The Dickinson School of Law. The author was a Visiting Researcher at The University of Virginia School of Law during the time of writing this article. She would like to thank Professors Al Brophy, Chris Fotopulos, Jonathan Masur and George Rutherglen for their detailed and helpful comments on earlier drafts. Special thanks go to Peter Hutt for his introduction to food and drug law at Harvard, and his encouragement to write about this topic. Grace Ziegler, The Diuturnal Use of Perfumes and Cosmetics, 34 ScI. MTHLY. 222-237 (1932). 2 Oumeish Youssef Oumeish, The Cultural and Philosophical Concepts of Cosmetics in Beauty and Art Through the Medical History of Mankind, 19 CLINICS IN DERMATOLOGY 375 (2001). I See Frances Dolan, Taking the Pencil Out of God's Hand Art, Nature, and the Face-Painting Debate in Early Modern England, 8 PMLA 224-239 (1993) (exploring the confluence of gender, expres- sion, nature and beauty). ' Myrna Armstrong, Vital Signs: When the Art is on a Body Part, 99 THE AMER. J. NURs. 80 (1999). ' See generally Amelia Jones. Body Art: Performing the Subject (1st ed., 1998). 6 Fox News, Body Art and Tattoos in the Workplace, http://www.foxnews.com/sto- ry/0,2933,223178,00.html (posted Oct. 26, 2006). Gary Drevitch, Body Art or Body Mutilation?, 16 ScHoL. CHOICES 6, 9 (Feb. 2001). Chris Wroblewski, Skin Shows: The Tattoo Bible (1st ed., 2004); Gowri Ramachandran, Freedom of Dress: State and Private Regulation of Clothing, Jewelry, Makeup, Tattoos, and Piercing, 66 MD. L. REV. 11 (2006); Lucille Ponte and Jennifer Gillan, Gender Performance Over Job Performance: Body Art Work Rules and the Continuing Subordination of the Feminine, 14 DUKE J. GENDER L. & POL'Y 319 (2007). 9 The author contacted several national tattoo artist organizations in the United States, as well as a professional certification program for henna tattoos and was not able to obtain statistics on the number of people using henna tattoo products or having them done professionally. As will be discussed in this article, many of these tattoos are done at home or by cottage industry henna artists. 779

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