On social media, a picture of a woman's hand with a working henna QR code went viral. In the video, a man used the Paytm app to scan the henna or mehndi QR code on his sister's hand, which led him to a payment window

News Claim: A picture of a woman's hand with a working henna QR code went viral on social media. In the video, a man used the Paytm app to scan the henna or mehndi QR code on his sister's hand, which led him to a payment window. Many people shared the video and praised the artist's inventiveness. Some people thought about getting themselves identical henna patterns.

News Verification: We discovered the "Yash Mehndi" Instagram account through a reverse search of keyframes from the popular video. On August 28, this location shared the trending video as a Reel. The video was altered and created for fun, according to the caption.

Heights ofHeights of Digital revolution in India !!!
UPI QR code in Mehndi design.
😆😆😆 #DigitalTransformation #DigitalIndia pic.twitter.com/O8wsnzpfxM

— Shraddha (@RadhamishraSh) August 29, 2023

We then got in touch with the account's manager. Delhi-based Mehndi artist Yash revealed to India Today that he recorded and edited the popular video.

"I made this Reel for fun after getting the idea from popular vids showing women giving their brothers QR codes while tying rakhis. The dialogue heard in the video was between my sister and me, and I designed the mehndi on her hand, he claimed.

Two screen recordings were used, according to Yash, for the Reel. He used the Paytm app to scan the Mehndi QR code in the first video. He scanned a functional QR code in the second video, which led to a payment mechanism. The finished video was then compiled from the two clips, and it was played while he was filming the Reel from the gallery on his phone.

When examining the phone in the viral video attentively, it can be seen that a video is being played from an iPhone gallery rather than the Paytm user interface. Additionally, he sent us the uncut film used to create the viral video, shown below.

Yash said that he didn't create a specific QR code only used one that he found online at random. So, it's evident that the popular video does not depict a working Paytm QR code.

News Verdict: Considering that individuals have in the past had functional QR codes tattooed on their skin, generating QR codes using henna might not be as straightforward. But the ink fades with time, so they don't endure long.