Azra Khamissa, one of the UAE’s most accomplished henna artists, has been proving with her oeuvre how the age-old practise can be reimaged for modern times.
Azra Khamissa’s relationship with henna has always felt instinctive. It’s as if the art of creating unique and ephemeral henna tattoos found her as much as she found it. She traces that connection back to a time when henna wasn’t yet a “career plan,” but a passion-led gesture to share with those receptive to her artistic vision of the traditional art of adornment. She remembers fondly, during a photo festival at Alserkal Avenue, how she brought a cone filled with dark red henna along and offered to do henna for anyone who was game to give it a go. One of the first hands she recalls working on belonged to her friend Mashael, “it was a moon in the centre of her hand,” remembers Khamissa – a little design, but a foreshadowing of what would become a hallmark henna style based on meaning, minimalism, and emotion. When asked what she notices first while working on a new set of hands, Khamissa’s answer is anything but skin deep. “I’ll look at a hand, and then I’ll look at the person and ask them, ‘ What are some things that they love? ‘” she shares. Then she will incorporate those details into her henna designs. In this way, her art becomes a bridge between an individual and what matters to them. A connection translated into lines and symbols that, poetically, will only stay with them for a finite amount of time.
When Khamissa talks about henna, it’s not as a tool of creativity as much as it is a gateway to an emotion, a memory or a moment. It is telling that when she gives an instinctive description of what henna might sound like if it could be heard, her words are both evocative and enlightening. “It’s the sound of… rustling… when a field is full of really high grass, and there’s a breeze,” or “the sounds of waves. Very organic and natural.” For the artist, these are “the sounds of relaxation… almost like meditation,” that put her in a heightened state of creativity. But that softness of artistic expression is paired with discipline and determination. Khamissa shares that her creative rituals when it comes to henna are now built around complete focus and silence. Usually late at night, when everything feels still. Sometimes, when an idea comes to mind, she will look up references, like going through images of flowers until she lands on a dahlia shape that makes sense in her mind’s eye. But once she begins one of her designs, she is fully immersed in the experience of bringing her vision to life.
When she talks about her craft, Khamissa naturally slips into an explanation of her technique, all the while giving context and grounding her work in its heritage, like mentioning the Indian tradition of using a lemon and sugar mixture as a fixative to prevent the henna from flaking. One of her own favourite methods is steaming the dried henna over hot water to warm it again and intensify the colour. These are the types of details that subtly underline the fact that henna is both an art form and a ritual, something passed through cultures, friendships and small discoveries.
Khamissa’s artistry is also influenced by her heritage, which gives her work a uniquely layered approach. Before pursuing henna as a career, she had a handbag brand and spent years photographing hands for her bag campaigns. This trained her eye for detail on skin, its curves and imperfections. She describes her current career as “God’s plan”, admitting she had no idea she would end up building a business around henna.
But now, looking back over her life, she can spot the connections and how the stars aligned to fuel this creative calling. Especially when she thinks about how being a chiropractic doctor has helped to inform her henna work. She reveals that human anatomy has a significant role in how she creates. She observes the joints, bones, and how each part of the hand works in unison – they all have a role to play in her designs, and she creates motifs with that structure in mind. Structures that feel more dimensional, sometimes almost illusionistic, so that each hand she adorns enhances the effect rather than simply acting as a flat canvas.
Recently, one thing that Khamissa has noticed that is starting to develop in the henna space is a significant increase in simple, contemporary motifs, which she attributes to the influence of bold, pared-down design language from the 1960s and 1970s. But what interests her the most is how inclusive henna is. It’s an art form that is shared across the cultures of Africa, Asia, and the Gulf, belonging to no tribe, and when addressed with respect, it becomes a lovely form of connection rather than something people should be wary of. “Nobody owns it. It’s for everyone,” she says, adding that respect is what matters: “if you’re respecting the art, it’ll show.”
Khamissa hopes that accessibility catches up to the growing interest in henna. She dreams of a day when natural, high-quality henna will be sold in beauty stores like Sephora, and purchased as easily as buying a new mascara. The only thing stopping that from becoming a reality is that fully natural henna has no preservatives, has a short shelf life, and should be stored in a freezer, a practical hurdle that the beauty industry has yet to overcome.
Beyond henna, Khamissa is also building a deeper sense of cultural connection through her Talli Circle project. After learning Talli, an Emirati braiding technique used to adorn traditional dresses, at her friend’s studio in Dubai, she saw that many other women were equally curious about the ancient artform but didn’t know where to go. When she shared her Talli journey online, the response motivated her to start something community-driven: a place to learn, slow down, and connect. “Community really just inspired it,” she says, alongside a desire to share the peace the craft brought her. She hopes the art of Talli will eventually spread globally, because she believes it is a regional art form that needs to be appreciated by a wider audience.
When asked what message she wants her work to communicate without words, Khamissa’s answer is quick: peace, acceptance, tolerance, kindness, and empathy.
More than anything, she wants people to stop believing that henna is solely for professionals. “I don’t think it’s just for artists. I think it’s for everyone,” she says, whether it’s a circle in the middle of a hand, dots on fingertips, or a full pattern across a palm. The true beauty of this form of self-expression is taking the leap to create and simply enjoying the communal process. Or as Khamissa puts it, “just pick up a cone, and have fun.”
– For more on luxury lifestyle, news, fashion and beauty follow Emirates Woman on Facebook and Instagram
Images: Farah Al Qasimi; Featured: Instagram @dr.azra
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: emirateswoman.com
