My Bad Experience with Henna Tattoo

Hi there dears! I'm writing this post to share one of my worst skin dilemmas right now and hopefully, people who read this will be more cautious when doing something new to their skin. Last May 1, my family and I went swimming at Amana Waterpark in Pandi, Bulacan. They are known for their "tsunami wave". I think the place was okay, the  famed tsunami waves are only at the 7ft area of the wavepool so people who don't know how to swim won't actually get to experience it. There were a lot of people, especially kids and the wave pool was really crowded! We were like an army of ants welcoming the waves as it splashes through us. BUT! that's not what this post is about.. sorry if I'm babbling! moving on..

By 4:00pm, I had a shower (I've had enough waves for a day and frankly, I don't wanna get sunburned) then my cousins and I decided to have a henna tattoo! It was our first time to try it and I was somewhat excited because I really want to have a tattoo done on my neck in the future. I chose a fairy design and had it drawn on my neck. Here's a picture of it:

Not bad, right? You can still see the red ink they used to outline the drawing before applying the henna. I almost had a stiff neck because I wasn't allowed to turn my head to the right or else it will be ruined. By the way, I payed only P100 for this.

After a few minutes, the thing started to itch and it got a bit stingy. My brother and my two young cousins also had a henna and I asked them if they also felt itchy and stingy, but they said no. I thought maybe this is just a normal reaction so I dismissed my worries. As I've said, this is my first time to have a henna, and I thought I wasn't supposed to rinse the "extra" henna ink it until it gets really dry on my skin, so I decided to leave it on all night.

HOWEVER! When I woke up, I was surprised to see my nails full of henna ink. And there was only one way to describe my neck: MESSY. My neck  was full of scratches and the henna ink also spread out all around my henna tattoo. Maybe it got itchy while I was sleeping, and I unconsciously rubbed it. I immediately washed it off with soap and water. STINGY! damn, I was beginning to regret having done henna on my neck. I belatedly realize that the skin around my neck is really sensitive ever since I used Maxi-Peel exfoliant on it (the skin around it is now really thin resulting to its sensitivity).

After I washed off the extra henna ink on my neck, I noticed that my skin formed welts. It also became really red. In other words, my skin got really irritated. The henna tattoo even had scabs on top of it for 3 days! Imagine how gross my neck looked. I was unable to take photos of it at it's worst because I was so busy with my internship. Until now, it still itches. The redness and swelling subsided a little but now I can't tie my hair up because the scar that resulted from the irritation looks ugly. See:

Fairy-shaped scar!

Here's a closer look:

ewwww ;___;

Sorry for the crappy quality of the pictures, this was taken inside my room. Anyway, you can see on the second pic that there's still swelling and there's these little bumps all over it. I'm still looking for a way to lighten it up.

I've learned many things from this horrible experience, and I hope once you read this, you'll take cautions too before trying out something that will be administrated on your skin. Before trying out a henna tattoo for the first time, make sure that you are not irritated to the chemical ingredients that are used to make it. If you have sensitive skin, you might want to think twice before trying this out, prevention is better than cure. But if you really want to have a henna tattoo you might as well have it done on some other parts of your skin that isn't too sensitive.

I can only hope that the scar will lighten up. Do you know any whitening cream that is SAFE and effective?