After a day at the beach and night of amusement park rides in Myrtle Beach, S.C., 13-year-old Mason Adams, of Ringgold, Ga., asked his mom if he could get a henna tattoo at one of the shops on the city's main drag.
His mother, Dusty Murphy, a nurse at T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital, agreed to what was supposed to be a temporary tattoo. Instead, the Fox motorcross brand logo and Mason's last name printed on his right shoulder will become a permanent scar.
Within days of getting the tattoo, Mason had an intense reaction to a chemical in the henna, resulting in a blistering and swollen wound.
"It was real sore when I lifted my arm. I couldn't touch my head. It itched, it burned," he said.
After two weeks and a prescription antibiotic and steroid, his arm is beginning to heal but doctors say there's a 90 percent chance the scar will be with him for life, as well as a lifelong susceptibility to the dye, which is found in hair dye and some other products.
The chemical is the dye p-phenylenediamin, also known as PPD, and is added to some henna tattoo materials to make the temporary tattoos darker and last longer.
This "black henna" can cause severe allergic reactions in some users, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The only approved use of PPD is as a hair dye and it is not FDA-approved for direct skin application.
BOX: "BLACK HENNA"Technically even natural henna is not FDA-approved for use on the skin; it is only approved for use in hair dye. Still, the coloring is widely used, particularly at tourist locations. The FDA warns of the dangers of "black henna," which is henna mixed with a chemical dye, p-phenylenediamine, of PPD, to make the coloring darker and longer-lasting. Black henna cause severe allergic reactions in some individuals and lifelong scars. The only legal use of PPD in cosmetics is as a hair dye.SOURCE: U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationHENNA DANGERSAfter getting a henna tattoo while on vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C., earlier this month, 13-year-old Mason Adams had an intense reaction to a chemical in the henna that will leave him with a permanent scar on his arm and a life-long susceptibility to a certain kind of dye.
Seemi Abidi, owner of Seemi's Henna Body Art in Nashville, said natural henna, without PPD, is completely safe. In her native Pakistan, the plant-based coloring -- made from grinding henna leaves into a powder and mixing with oils, lemon juice and black tea -- is "a must in our culture for any special occasion," she said. "A bride cannot be a bride without henna."
But she never uses black henna at her shop because of its potential to cause allergic reactions, even if it's rare, she said.
"Even if for one person it's dangerous, we cannot take any risk," she said.
Mason's pediatrician, Dr. Henry Baughman of Promise Pediatrics, said that every summer he sees two or three kids with a reaction to henna, although he's never seen a case as severe as Mason's. He generally recommends against henna tattoos completely, even if one does a skin test first.
"Skin testing is no guarantee. You can still react to something even if you were exposed to it 100 times and not have a reaction," he said.
Mason, who will have to keep his shoulder out of the sun and water for weeks because of the open wound, said he's more upset about his disrupted summer than the scar on his shoulder.
"I'm OK with (the scar) because I like Fox (motorcross) and it's my last name," he said. "But if it was something silly I would regret it later on."