Student's warning after he is left with scars from getting facial 'black henna' tattoo in Zante
A student who got a henna tattoo of Mike Tyson's infamous face inking ‘for a laugh’ fears he could be scarred for life after doctors had to bleach it when it turned into a blistered burn.
James Colley, from Cardiff, was on a week-long holiday in Zante celebrating end-of-term exams when he came across a henna stall and decided to get the same facial tattoo as the heavyweight.
But after 12 hours, the 18-year-old says the tattoo become painful to touch and began to ooze puss.
Doctors revealed the stallholder had used black henna, made from a chemical substance, rather than a henna tattoo which is a natural dye from the henna plant.
They warned it could cause permanent scarring.
The following morning James realised he needed to seek medical help.
He said: “It started to blow up a bit and go red and it looked infected. I knew something wasn't right so I went to hospital. That's when they told me I'd actually had a black henna which is really harmful."
James said: “The doctors said that a guy they knew who was a rep for one of the travel companies had one three years ago and he still has the scar.
“I couldn’t believe that this could give me a scar for years, I was really shocked.”
James admits the person he was most worried about telling was his mum.
“I think everyone I know that has seen it is shocked really, you don’t really expect this to happen when you have what you think is a normal henna tattoo, not realising its black henna.”
James is planning to study War and Society at Swansea University in September and said he will like to work in the civil service when he graduates - in the hope his scar will have faded by the time he finishes university.
“If it doesn’t fade I don’t really know what I'd do, I think I'll have a lot of explaining to do to my future employer."
A spokesman for Elena’s Surgery, where James was treated, said: “James' tattoo wasn't done with natural henna, it was done with what is known as black henna, which is a mixed ink and chemical substance."
“The skin reaction gets worse as the ink is absorbed by the skin, so the first thing we did was to remove the ink from James' skin.
“The only way we could do this was by gently wiping the ink off with bleach and then treating it with steroid creams and surgical cleaning every day."
The British Skin Foundation launched an awareness campaign about the dangers of black henna two years ago after UK dermatologists reported a rise in the number of reactions.
British Skin Foundation spokesperson Lisa Bickerstaffe said: “Unfortunately James Colley's story is another example of just how dangerous black henna can be.
“What seems like a bit of fun on holiday has now left him with some nasty facial scars.
“The British Skin Foundation cannot stress enough how important it is to avoid black henna both at home and abroad.”
What is black henna?
Natural henna is orange/brown in colour and will not stain your skin black. It’s created by crushing the leaves of a henna plant.
Black henna temporary tattoos (BHTTs) are not based on henna at all, but a substance called para-phenylenediamine (PPD) which is found in hair dyes. PPD is allowed for use in hair dye, but its use for skin contact products such as temporary tattoos is illegal in the European Union.
When PPD is used on the skin in this way it can cause blistering, painful skin burns and may even lead to scarring. It can also leave the person with a lifelong sensitivity to PPD, which increases the risk of a severe allergic reaction when using hair dye in the future.
Research among dermatologists in 2015 revealed that they were seeing an increase in reactions at their clinics across the UK.
Four out of 10 dermatologists asked had seen patients with skin reactions to black henna temporary tattoos (BHTTs).
One in 20 dermatologists approached said that more than 80 per cent of the BHTT reactions they had seen were in children aged under 16.