Shock value is hard to produce in the Internet age, but some attendees of the International Tattoo Festival in Caracas, Venezuela, gave it their best shot.
The four-day festival, organized to spread awareness of extreme body art, featured ghoulish face tattoos, extreme piercings, bifurcated tongues and Kala Kaiwi, the Hawaiian man who owns the world record for earlobe stretching.
But the festival’s most eye-popping body modification was almost certainly eyeball tattoos. You may not have realized that eyeball tattoos are a thing, but they are — and have been for some time.
The man usually credited with the founding of this trend is an American tattoo artist known as Luna Cobra. He describes himself as the “pioneer in the field.”
In an article with the BBC Cobra said his original intention was to modify his eyes so they’d resemble the bright eyes of the characters from the science fiction movie “Dune.”
The technique “involves injecting pigment directly into the eyeball so it rests under the eye’s thin top layer, or conjunctiva,” and Cobra first tried it on several volunteers at a tattoo show in Canada. Cobra agrees that the technique sounds insane.
The eye-coloring is permanent, which hasn’t stopped hundreds of people in countries all over the world from turning their eyes blue, green, red and black, he said.
“If you want to amuse yourself by decorating your eyeball, why not do it?” he said. “I do a lot of things that look like tie-dye or ‘cosmic space’. I think it brings a realm of fantasy into everyday life.”
Which brings us to a logical question: What does it feel like to have a needle stuck in your eyeball?
“It was mentally intense,” Kylie Garth told the BBC, noting that her turquoise-colored eyeballs have generated only positive attention. “It feels like somebody is poking at your eye, then it feels like strange pressure and then it feels you have a bit of sand in your eye, but there’s no pain.”
For its part, the American Optometric Association unequivocally condemns the practice, saying it puts the patient at risk of infection, inflammation and blindness.
“My advice is not to do it as there’s not enough benefit to even warrant considering that risk of potential pain and loss of vision,” says Jeffrey Walline, the chair-elect of the association’s Contact Lens and Cornea Council.
Such is the concern that several US states have debated banning eyeball tattoos.
Garth, who says she is one of only a handful of women in the world with both eyeballs tattooed, says anyone considering the procedure needs to be absolutely sure they are making the right choice.
“It’s not like you’re going to get a little tattoo on your wrist,” she says. “This is the most permanent body modification you can get, you can’t take the ink out of your eye.”
That may explain why eyeball tattooing is still rare art.
But, despite the risks, its popularity is growing. Before long it may not be that uncommon to come face to face with a stranger whose appearance is literally eye-popping.
The Doctors with Eyecare Associates of Lees Summit disagrees with Ms. Garth. No one should ever consider this type of tattoo. They are very dangerous and we hope eyeball tattooing remains a rare art. So if you think you need your eyes tattooed Royals Blue come see us first. We have Royal Blue Tinted contact lenses available just in time for spring training. We also have many new sunglasses for the summer months. It may be hot but you will be looking cool with your hot sunglasses from Eyecare Associates of Lees Summit.
