'My small market stall turned into a famous piercing studio with celeb clients'

15 February 2023 , 15:26

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Matthew opened Metal Morphosis with his father and now runs it with his son, Ben (L to R, Matthew Harris, Ben's son, Ben) (Image: Metal Morphosis)

When you hear the words family business, images of a farm or newsagents might spring to mind. Rarely would you think of a world famous and celebrity-frequented piercing studio - but that's exactly what Metal Morphosis is.

Since opening in the early Nineties, London's Metal Morphosis has been piercing everyone from Naomi Campbell to Millie Bobbie Brown to Keith Flint from The Prodigy. This acclaim has been earned through over 30 years of hard work, that all started by chance on a market stall.

Matthew Harris began Metal Morphosis with his father and now runs it with his son, Ben. The pair spoke to The Mirror about their incredible journey from market to a must-go piercing destination.

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The Carnaby Street studio is 'full circle' for the business (Metal Morphosis)

"What's quite ironic is that we've done a full circle," said Matthew, "So we started in Old Compton Street in Soho in 1991 and now we've ended up back in Soho in Carnaby Street in 2021."

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Ben explained: "My dad was a market boy, who was a sales guy and my grandad was a medical guy, running pharmacies. So my dad was selling anything he got his hands on from toilet roll products, going into wigs and jewellery.

"Then people were asking him to pierce them with the jewellery they were buying."

Market stalls are perhaps not the most sanitary environment to get your ear pierced at, so Matthew consulted his father to back up the growing side hustle with some medical knowhow.

Father and son then opened Metal Morphosis together, despite not being heavily pierced themselves, in 1991. This initially caused pushback from customers who were used to being pierced by people covered in tattoos and piercings.

At this time, piercing was a "subculture" Ben explained, so Metal Morphosis broke the mould by being the first commercial piercing studio in London - run by people outside of the existing community.

This stigma and underground association has all but disappeared now, which Matthew attributes in part to social media. He said: "It's blown up two fold but, in the last 30 years, there's always been trends. It's always been fashionable.

"It's far more accessible now for the general public to be able to look and think 'you know what, I actually want my ears like that'."

Throughout the 90s Metal Morphosis was seen at festivals across the UK (Metal Morphosis)

For many years, Matthew took Metal Morphosis on the road too with a mobile festival set up at Leeds, Reading, and Glastonbury. He said: "I often get asked why don't we do it any more but one of the main reasons is because we're such a big name now, that it doesn't lend itself to sticking holes in people at festivals."

Ben joked that "drink and alcohol" doesn't lend itself to a modern piercing business so customers probably won't see them at festivals again.

During the late Nineties, Metal Morphosis really picked up with a second store opening in Dublin and some famous clients coming to visit.

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Matthew fondly remembers the late Keith Flint, singer from two time Grammy nominees The Prodigy, who came to the store to get his septum pierced.

The pair became became 'quite friendly' and even visited a factory together to go and buy sports cars. Matthew said of Flint's piercing: "He used to wear that on stage as it was part of his whole look."

Metal Morphosis broke ground by being the first piercing studio to have a shop in a department store, heading into London's famed Selfridges in 2003.

"Peaches [Geldof], she used to come in quite regularly with her dad," Matthew said of their time in Selfridges. "He never used to get anything done but he used to just stand there with us. I remember that quite vividly."

Piercing was once a subculture but is now firmly part of the mainstream (Metal Morphosis)

Ben runs the business with his dad while raising his own son, Jagger (Metal Morphosis)

Trend setters once again, Metal Morphosis were also the first to move into Oxford Street's Topshop in 2011, where they stayed for seven years. Never far from a celebrity client, here Kelly Osbourne got her nose and ear pierced by Ben's sister, Bo, who had joined the family business.

The father and son duo also reveal that they pierced Naomi Campbell's navel - which is often credited with sparking the Noughties belly button piercing trend.

In tribute to all the celebrity clients, the Carnaby Street shop has a "wall of fame" with Polaroids of famous faces who have been pierced by the team, which customers see as they head to the piercing room.

Fans can spot Martin Kemp, Brooklyn Beckham and Zoe Ball smiling down on them as they go. Matthew remarked that Rihanna also had a nipple piercing done at Metal Morphosis.

The piercer said: "The shop's always had it, where you get the celebs coming in, especially in central London. Now in Carnaby Street, I'm sure there's quite a few that come in that we don't even know at the time."

"We've had rabbis and priests coming in," he laughed. "The rabbi had something done down below which is against against the religion."

Their wall of fame features so many celebrities, they've lost count (Metal Morphosis)

With the eye-catching neon signs and "Instagramable" look of the shop, it's no surprise that influencers and celebrities flock to Metal Morphosis - but this isn't what really matters to Ben and his dad.

Returning to Soho was a symbolic homecoming for the business, with customers coming in and saying they were pierced by Matthew over 25 years ago.

Ben said: "There's not many brands in the UK that can say that they are specialist piercers like we are and have been doing it for as long as we have with the history and the experience and exposure that we've had. So I think that sets us apart."

"That's the beauty of not selling online, [customers] have to come to our shops," he added, "We're looking at the longevity and we're all about the customer experience. I think that's what Metal Morphosis is all about".

With another store on the horizon in central London, it's clear this family run piercing business is still going from strength to strength.

Danni Scott