Photo Credit: Catt Gallinger Facebook
Eye Tattoos: What’s up with that?
Many of you may have heard of scleral tattoos AKA eye tattoos. This new fad involves “tattooing” the white part of the eye by injecting ink under the outer layer of the eye called the conjunctiva. Sound scary? Well, it is!
Surfacing along with this new fad are many reports of people experiencing permanent vision loss or loss of the eye itself. There are way too many risks involved with eye tattoos including severe infection (see: endophthalmitis), the ink being injected too deeply into the eye, irreversible damage to the cornea (the clear part of the eye over the iris and pupil that is responsible for about 70% of the eye’s focusing ability), light sensitivity, a feeling of something being in the eye, permanent vision loss and/or loss of the eye itself.
Recently a Canadian model warned others on Facebook after she had a scleral tattoo done, suffered intense pain and lost vision in that eye. Doctors have told her that she will likely not regain the vision in that eye and may lose more vision as well. When the ink is injected too deeply and enters the vitreous, the patient’s vision will darken and may even black out. This poses even more issues for treatment, as the doctor can no longer see in the eye to examine and treat the patient. Along with increasing the risk of endophthalmitis, this will almost ensure surgery is needed as well.
Our thoughts? Just don’t do it! There are way too many risks associated with scleral tattoos.
Check out these stories of scleral tattoos gone wrong:
http://www.newsweek.com/model-goes-blind-after-tattooing-eyeball-warms-others-dangers-673519
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/news/eyeball-tattoos-are-even-worse-than-they-sound
