The Risks of Eyeball Tattooing
There is a golden rule in medicine, saying that the benefits of any treatment or medical procedure should outweigh its risks. Eyeball tattooing is a form of extreme body modification, which involves intervention into one’s eye. Thus, before rushing to a tattoo saloon, inspired by the idea to change the color of eyeballs, it won’t be too much to learn some basic information about the risks, associated with eyeball tattooing.
Eyeball or corneal tattooing is a procedure, when a particular dying agent or ink is injected or otherwise delivered under the top layer of an eye, called cornea. Cornea is a very delicate eye’s part with the thickness of about 0.5-0.6 mm in the center and 0.6-0.8 mm at the periphery.
About 90% of cornea consists of stroma, a middle layer containing mainly collagen fibers. Stroma is exactly the place, where ink is delivered during eyeball tattooing. In view of miniature structure of cornea and the fact that it is filled with nerve endings, certain medical risks are always present while performing eyeball tattooing. Furthermore, it should be noted that cornea plays a key role in human’s ability to see. Thus, damaging cornea may cause serious sight problems up to blindness.
Among the most common risks of eyeball tattooing are infection, perforation and hemorrhage. Cornea is a very thin layer and sometimes a needle can penetrate through it reaching the underlying layers of the eye. Furthermore, eyeball tattoo is about multiple (sometimes up to 40) pricks, which may cause an inflammatory reaction aside of being a pretty painful experience. In case of eye inflammation or keratitis, the injected dye may be attacked by the human immune system, making the results of eyeball tattoo unstable and short-lasting.
Other risks of eyeball tattooing include toxic reaction to ink, persistent defects of corneal epithelial layer, and even corneal erosion and ulceration. Generally speaking, the consequences of eyeball tattooing on healthy human eyes is not well researched and documented, since in medical practice this procedure is performed only on highly damaged eyes with impaired function.
Following the topic of eyeball tattoo risks, it is also necessary to note that certain dangers may be associated with the type of ink, used for tattooing. The general practice is using commercially available tattoo pigments, such as ferric oxide or hydroxide, iron oxide, carbon black, titanium dioxide and others. However, the problem is that the long-term safety of these chemicals, injected into human eyes, has not yet been well researched. Thus, a certain risk of allergic or toxic reaction is always present. Furthermore, tattoo inks contain harmful chemicals, such as chlorine, barium, and arsenic salts, which may also cause medical complications after eyeball tattooing.
Dr. Sandra Belmont, a New York Presbyterian Hospital ophthalmologist says: “I certainly recommend corneal tattooing in a patient with a corneal scar – but I do not recommend these procedures to be performed solely for the purpose of body adornment due to significant vision-threatening side effects”. The decision to do or not to do eyeball tattooing is surely a matter of personal choice. The key is that such decision should always be well-considered and reasonably motivated.
I don’t think getting my eyes tattooed is something I would ever do. I think it would freak too many people out. I will stick with just regular tatts. I think I am due for a new one actually. Time to head on over to my favortie tattoo website to checkout the Tattoo Me Now gallery. If you want access to hundreds, actually thousands, of amazing and beautiful tattoo design I highly recommend the site. Read my Tattoo Me Now review to learn what is included in their lifetime membership deal.
