IT was 3:30 in the afternoon. The time finally came. The time they had been waiting for all day. Clad in their khaki suits, the two boys boldly marched into the tattoo parlour in Half-Way-Tree and patiently waited for the artist to finish the “masterpiece” he was working on.

The buzz of the machine, like music to their ears, calmed any sense of nervousness they felt. Waiting to be inked, one student sat with one sleeve rolled up, anxiously anticipating his one-on-one time with the artist. The other, with curiosity masking the fear in his eyes, stood beside the door that led to the artist’s small box of a workstation.

Trying to put on a brave face, he intently peered at the artist, scrutinising his every move as he tattooed his other client.

Intrigued by this, I asked the boys if they were there to be tattooed; they proudly admitted the only reason they sat in the parlour was to receive the tattoo they always imagined. The tattoo artist, though working on his client, insisted that I come into the station to ask whatever question I had.

“There is nothing to the procedure,” he said when I asked what I would need to get a tattoo from his establishment. “All yuh haffi do ah come wid di idea fi di tattoo weh yuh want an mi do it.”

Another tattoo artist in the area said he tattoos minors, but at his parlour he does not work on students in their uniforms. These minors are not the only ones being tattooed across the island daily. Though popular, tattooing minors in sections of the United States and other countries is illegal. In Jamaica, it is different as there is no existing law that explicitly speaks to the art of tattooing.

The Law of Reform (Age of Majority) states that a 16-year-old is allowed to approve any surgical procedure without permission from an adult guardian. According to section eight of the Act, the agreement between a 16-year-old and the medical practitioner is as effective as if the child were an adult (18 years).

Though there is no explicit law, tattoo parlours are often branded with the popular expression “18 years and older”, as artists and most Jamaicans are of the notion that tattooing is only allowed on an individual who, by law, has reached adulthood.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Steve McGregor said this is the law that governs tattooing of minors. When asked why the law has the age of consent for a medical procedure as 16 and not 18, he said the age varies depending on the law. He explained that in this case, though the law states the age as 16, the permissible age to get a tattoo is, in fact, 18 years.

“Is there a law?” Courtney Buckley, tattoo artist and owner of Klymaxx Tattoos, sarcastically asked. “…Most tattoos are even older than the law books.”

Patrick Ramdial, now 21-years old, who got a tattoo when he was 17, said it was easy for him.

“It was simple. You would come in, pick the tattoo you wanted, they would sketch it and then place it at the area you wanted it. They would then disinfect the area, their hands and also the needle then they put on surgical gloves [and] begin,” he said nonchalantly.

The artist, he said, was not concerned about his age because they had known each other from before.

Ramdial now has four tattoos — one on both arms, his chest, and his back.

The art of tattooing has gained popularity over the years in Jamaica. This, according to Buckley, “is a reflection of society with persons who have different stories to tell”.

“A lot of the tattoos in Jamaica are related to communities and the idea of being a part of a community,” Erin MacLeod, lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona said. “…I think of course, most famously, recently the dancehall DJ Vybz Kartel drew a lot of attention to tattooing in wanting to make his body, as he puts it, ‘a colouring book’ and expressing himself through the tattooing. But then, on top of it, ensuring that the tattoos were seen through bleaching, which complicated the whole issue of what the cultural basis of tattooing or the desire to tattoo stems from … a lot of the basis of the dancehall culture, which is to be a part of the group but to stand out from the group.”

The root of tattooing, according to a study conducted by the Kingston Paediatric and Perinatal HIV and AIDS Study Group in 2008, titled ‘Tattooing and perinatal HIV and AIDS in Jamaica’, lies in the fact that tattooing was once seen as a custom and sometimes used in rituals and as a symbol in certain cultures.

“Tattoos are coming from a spiritual time. The age of [the] tattoo govern[s] spirituality, religion and certain rituals that people still hold up to today,” Buckley stated.

“When you look at the tattoos that people have, a lot of them have to do with memories of other people, connections to other people, whether it is loved ones, family, children, those who have passed [and] trying to capture those memories. There is also a level of trying to be an individual and having certain kinds of tattoos that set people apart, shock people [and] make people look,” MacLeod explained.

The art of tattooing has become a fashion trend among young people in Jamaica. Though it is illegal for minors to be tattooed, some artists and youth are willing to take the risk, and be seen with, and known for the once spiritual and ritualistic practice.

“Every other youngster, when you see them on Saturdays or in the evenings when they wear the belly skin or what will show the back, you will see the tattoos and you wonder if the parents don’t say anything to them. If it is an adult you can understand, but for a 15-year-old to have [a] tattoo on their belly…” SSP McGregor said in disbelief.

But Keisha Foster, a 24-year-old student at the University of Technology, Jamaica, who got her first tattoo on her 16th birthday, saw tattooing as a way to express her deepest emotions that she thinks people will not understand.

“Some people may judge and say why I have so many tattoos, but they really don’t know. To me it’s just expression — like dance and art. I do it because it’s just easier than explaining myself to people. Is me alone will understand what I’m going through anyway,” she said as she held her upper arm, which bears a tattoo.

For Ramdial, tattooing was a “symbol of freedom” and when he saw them on his older sisters he liked them and decided to get one, despite not getting permission from his parents.

Cordelia Thomas, now 21 years old and a final year International Relations student at the UWI, got her first tattoo when she was in the ninth grade and said she did so to remember her sister.

“It was when my sister had just died and I was going through a hard time. I was depressed and wanted something to remember her by, so I did the tattoo,” she said.

Thomas tattooed the first initial of her sister’s name on the top of her left hand.

“Mi jus love how it mek mi skin look,” said one 15-year-old boy who, like Ramdial, was inspired to get a tattoo after seeing them on people in his community.

The teenager, who proudly displayed the design on his arm, said he had no trouble getting it.

“Mi jus tell di artist weh mi did want an him deal wid it,” he said with a grin. “No ID required, no questions asked. All him waan know is dat mi have mi money.”

But the teen would have had a different experience had he gone to Klymaxx Tattoos as Buckley maintains that he does not tattoo minors, though he does not always ask for identification.

“If I do see someone coming in… looking younger than what I expect to be the average look, in terms of age, then I will ask for ID,” he said. “I have asked for ID on many occasions and as the door says ’18 years and older’. So you would get a consent form if you’re under the age of 18, but I don’t go under 17.”

He said outside of this policy, the average age of people who get tattoos from his establishment ranges between 24 and 30 years.

The average cost to get a tattoo in Jamaica is $2,000. This, Buckley, said increases based on the size and features of the tattoo, as people sometimes require large tattoos or designs with colour. This same tattoo can cost an individual between $1,500 and $40,000 to be removed.

Nadine Gajraj, laser technician at Ripon Surgi-Centre: Face and Body Laser Centre, said people between the ages of 13 and 80 years are interested in tattoo removal.

For teenagers, she said, “[it is] because they can’t go back to school [with the tattoo]. They got it in the summer and it’s almost time for school so they come for removal [as] the principals won’t let them in,” Gajraj said.

“From 20 to 30 years, these persons are entering the police force, the army or some may want to be a prison guard and, you know, they can’t enter these organisations having a tattoo. Persons between 30 and 40 years do it for professional reasons, they got the tattoo when they were younger and don’t see the need for it now. Older persons got it when they were young and they don’t want to die with it,” she said.

I observed that most tattoo parlours in the Kingston area are operated in a small room within hairdressing salons which oftentimes indicate on a dingy paper that tattoos are done on the inside.

The 2008 Kingston Paediatric and Perinatal HIV and AIDS Study Group also found that there are also known tattoo artists who carry out their trade through home visits.

The study also found that most clients choose a tattoo parlour based on financial affordability, rather than the professionalism of the tattoo artist.

“When you find some of these locations, it is quite ugly and dirty… for someone who would be doing something like that, they don’t have any sterilisation area. It is just filthy. I’m surprised, some have not yet died as a result of a dirty needle, or got some disease,” a concerned SSP McGregor said.

But when being inked, minors are not considering these factors. “Health was the farthest from my mind,” one tattooed teenager admitted. He said he saw the artist do something with the needle that looked like sterilisation, before he started giving him the tattoo.

The study outlined that the trend of tattooing in Jamaica is most popular among teenagers, especially those who are not knowledgeable about the correct sterile procedures to be used. It stated that tattooing poses a threat to a person’s health, because during tattooing the transmission of diseases carried by the blood is likely, especially if the artist uses unethical, unsterile practices.

“Well, if persons are not careful, they may become infected if the environment is not hygienic and the instruments are not properly sterilised,” Dr Sean Milton said. “It is not the tattoo that will make you ill, but the dirty instruments used to puncture the skin and expose the body to the bacteria and, in some cases, blood transmitted diseases.”

Hepatitis, warts, rashes and abscesses around the tattooed area are some of the illnesses an individual can develop after unhealthy tattoo practices. The Centers for Disease Control in the United States has proven that the transmission of Hepatitis B and C has occurred through unhygienic tattoo practices.

Hepatitis, a virus that infects the liver, may seem like flu to the patient but if not treated in a timely fashion can cause extensive liver damage.

But the environment is not the only factor that determines whether a person is infected as Buckley pointed out that aftercare is most important.

“[They should] remove the bandage after nine hours, wash it with antibacterial soap. You can’t expose the tattoo to extreme sunlight or go to the beach or soak the tattoo in any form of way for the next two weeks. Within this time, use an antibiotic ointment on the wound and afterwards use a moisturising lotion to heal the skin,” Buckley said.

In Jamaica, where tattoo parlours are not closely regulated, the responsibility is on the client to ensure they protect their health. According to SSP McGregor, some of the illegally operated tattoo parlours are run by teenagers themselves, who are looking to make money.

“Because there is a ready clientele for it, these supposed tattoo artists make themselves available,” SSP McGregor said. “…We have arrested a lot of them [and] we have put a couple of the juveniles through the courts. What we do is register them in our juvenile caution register, call in their parents and point it out to them, and if we find that the parents are not suitable we put them through the Family Court system, as they would fall under the realm of a child in need of care and protection.”

For such an operation, he said, the artist would be charged with operating a business without the appropriate licence.

“They don’t know that when you do operations like these, they should be registered, that you have a course of redress if something should happen. But they keep taking the risk and they do it, you know young people,” McGregor said. “We try to alert them at the community meetings, we’ll speak to the parents, but it is a challenge and it is one of our problems with these youngsters.”

He said, a person who tattoos a minor without consent from the child’s parent would be charged for doing business with a minor.

“We would put the charge together and then the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) would craft the proper wording and place them against the court,” he said.

Though some high schools have rules against students displaying tattoos while in their uniforms, it is not a deterrent to some minors as they develop a mechanism to ensure the art is not seen while in school.

“My first tattoo was in my back, so my uniform would hide it. Unless I showed it to you, you wouldn’t know I had one. Only my close friends knew and they didn’t rat on me,” Foster outlined.

She said once she knew her teachers could not see the tattoo, she would not get into any trouble.

Ramdial, like Foster, said he “…took care to place them where they were not visible”, though he did not know whether his school’s rule book prohibited tattoos.

But Thomas, who got the tattoo on her hand, initially used her uniform pocket, her jacket or her bag to hide her tattoo when at school.

“I would put my hands in my pocket or my bag whenever I was around someone who I thought would have a problem with it, to avoid getting into trouble or be suspended,” she said.

Dinthill Technical High School teacher Sean Champagne said though the school has no written policy regarding tattoos, if a student is seen with one, the student would be told to cover it during school hours.

Despite countries such as the US implementing a law that explicitly speaks to the tattooing of minors, for Jamaica to implement such a law, according to SSP McGregor, “something bad has to happen”.

“We normally make laws out of practice and customs, so you will find that if a lot of them start getting diseases or some die you know sadly, that’s how you get things like these being crafted,” McGregor explained. “But we [only] know that it is quite prevalent… and it is mainly among the young people.”

For Thomas, tattooing facilitates freedom of expression and should not be prohibited, neither by law nor an organisation.

“If [minors] are seeing their favourite musicians [and] artistes… tattooing themselves — everything from their bodies to their eyeballs for instance — there can be an impact on minors in terms of the young people wanting to be tattooed,” MacLeod said.

She said she does not think tattooing is wrong, but believes “…it makes sense to restrict something like tattooing [from minors] because young people don’t necessarily have the same types of judgement as adults and also… are not legally able to be responsible for all of their choices.

“I mean, something like tattooing, much like other activities that young people get involved in, can potentially have lifelong consequences,” MacLeod said.

It has been five years since Ramdial was in the 11th grade and got his first tattoo. Since then, he got three more and said he has never regretted getting any.

This article was first published in the 2015 edition of CARIMAC TIMES magazine as a final year project.