J C d i z z y s t a r

CREATIVE ARTS

homeshoe arthenna artcircus skillsabout the artist gallery

I was born in Manchester and raised in Tameside, Lancashire. My dad owns a small tented circus, Circus Sensible, and so I grew up walking on stilts… practically.

I learned the basics of henna tattooing at the tender age of 12 from a family friend, who was also a henna tattoo artist. Since childhood I had always loved art and anything creative, so I continued to teach myself about henna tattoo art for four more years, when I then began to work in my family circus as a henna tattoo artist, face painter, balloon modeller and entertainer / teacher of circus skills, African and Brazilian drumming.

After I finished my A-levels I decided to take a gap year, in which I went to Chile for four months to teach English to primary school children, and I even managed to fit in circus skills workshops at break times. I then returned to the UK and moved to Fife to read for my MA (Hons) in Spanish at the University of St Andrews.

In 2007 I spent the summer in Malaga, Spain, where I supported myself by doing henna tattoos for tourists by day, and practicing circus skills in the plaza at night. When I returned to university, I began to work more frequently as a henna tattoo artist, and then in the summer of 2008 I did my first festival gig in my hometown, where I also began to advertise for sale my hand-painted shoes. The feedback I got from displaying the shoes was very positive, and so I spend the rest of my summer working on producing many more pairs, and creating a portfolio of my designs.

In addition to the henna and shoes, I also do other design commissions on request. For example, I frequently do designs for people wanting to get permanent tattoos, and I also do customisations for caps, bags and other miscellaneous accessories. I've done logo designs, and designs for publicity and marketing purposes - I'll consider virtually any request, so if there's something you need, please do get in touch.

I am currently based in Manchester, but am happy to travel - please ask!

Thank you for visiting my site, and for taking the time to read about what I do.

Jen Abbott

JCdizzystar

CONTACT DETAILS

by email: info@jcdizzystar.co.uk

by phone: 07965 502721