Customers flock sidewalk piercing 'shop'

"Come in nuh sexy, make me give you a discount on two piercing," says Jahiem 'Big Boss' Matthie as he lines up customers on the sidewalk of Beckford Street in downtown Kingston.

Cardboard and Solitex are used to create the perfect makeshift office.

'If you feel pain, you don't pay' a slogan reads. This proved to be true as a female sits comfortably while Big Boss inserts a piercing needle into her tongue after numbing the area.

Big Boss' clients are kept well entertained and distracted with the hardcore dancehall music that is being blasted from the speaker boxes nearby.

Other vendors show off the latest styles in clothing and undergarments.

The self-taught body piercer has been operating on Beckford Street for the past eight years and sometimes has dozens of clients per day.

Big Boss changes his gloves and needles between piercings, disposing the used ones in a container nearby.

"I used to sell the jewellery and persons used to ask me why me nuh start piercing. Me approach several persons with it but dem never wah me do it, so me start do it free at parties, and a from deh so me build me clientele and confidence," he said.

He breaks the interview for a few minutes to attend to his customers, one of who got a 'smiley', which is a piercing in that flap of skin between the upper lip and gum. Another female settled for a spot above her upper lip.

"Bwoy, when me just start, a whole heap a people get lean piercings, enuh. Sometimes dem come up to me and start cuss, but me just explain to them say a tru me just start and ting and dem understand," he said, laughing.

Like other body piercers, Big Boss said a few of his clients will come back with an infected piercing, but states that it's not his fault.

"There are times when people will come back and say it get infected, but is because dem nuh follow instructions. Me tell dem to use salt water and clean the area, and some a dem use peroxide and alcohol and just irritate it," he said.

Big Boss is currently unlicensed but said he has made several attempts to do so; but the task has proved tedious.

"Me go Ministry of Health and dem send me go KSAMC (Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation) and me still never get no positive result. I am just thankful that I was never harassed by any authority," he said.