Jessie Knight (tattoo artist)

Jessie Knight was born in Croydon in South London, in 1904, one of eight children. Her family worked in circuses and she was involved in sharp-shooting and riding acts. She was married aged 27, but this only lasted eight years.[1] She died in Barry, South Wales, in 1992.

Knight began as a tattoo artist in 1921 when she was 18,[2] having learnt how to tattoo from her father. She worked in Barry, South Wales.[3] She was later an apprentice with Charlie Bell in Kent. She then moved to her own tattoo shops in Portsmouth and subsequently Aldershot. Many of her clients were women.[4] She returned to Barry in 1968 and continued working into the 1980s.[5]

Her style was to work freehand after drawing the design onto the body.[3]

In 1955 her tattoo of a highland fling won second prize in the Champion Tattoo Artist of All England competition held in London.[1]

Her work was included in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, from March 2017 to January 2018, showing a history of British tattooing.[6] Tatty Devine has made a brooch and a necklace using an original design of Jessie Knight. Skin Digging, an exhibition of work by and owned by Jessie Knight from the collection of Neil Hopkin-Thomas was on display January 18 - February 18, 2018 at the Art Exchange gallery on the University of Essex campus in Colchester.[2] Knight was one of the tattoo artists featured in an exhibition about the history of British tattooing at Chatham Historic Dockyard in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was cancelled.[7]