BEFORE TATOO THERE WAS LAALI

Africa is the motherland of fashion in the world. Before the western jewelry came there were sea pearls and beads, before the advent of designer lipsticks, they crushed red beetles to paint the lips and before the painful and awful tattoos there was the beautiful and artistic body painting called laali in northern Nigeria.

Fast becoming a contemporary fashion trend and a more acceptable alternative to permanent tattoos, the henna body painting or laali dates back to precolonial times. It is a unique cosmetic tradition of the people of northern Nigeria that has a significant religious relevance...