Henna is a reddish-brown dye made from the dried leaves of a small tree. People mix the powder with water or lemon into a paste, then put it on hair or on skin. On hair it can leave a warm red-brown colour. On skin it dries and leaves a stain that lasts days or weeks — often flowers and patterns on hands for a wedding. That body art is famous in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. English speakers often call it a henna tattoo, though actually it is a stain, not ink under the skin, and it fades. The colour of real henna is that rusty red-brown. Black henna sold for skin art is not always the same plant, and it can burn the skin. The English word is a borrowing of the Arabic name of the tree.