The scary new tattoo craze: Eyeball inking
IT’S dangerous and absolutely irreversible, but that isn’t stopping this trend from taking off. Tattoos just went to a whole new level.
WHAT’S the next trend when tattoos are too mainstream?
When scarring yourself is too tame and inserting silicone implants under your skin is not quite edgy enough – why not just tattoo your eyeballs?
Yes, you read that right. In an alarming new trend, hundreds of people worldwide, and a surprising number of Australians are permanently inking their sclera (the white area around the iris) in a procedure which has been labelled “experimental, extreme and potentially carcinogenic” by medical professionals.
The modern process (other forms of eyeball colouring have previously been employed in various cultures) was pioneered by US-born body modification expert and tattooist Luna Cobra, who splits his time between Melbourne and San Francisco.
It involves injecting ink directly into the eyeball. The ink then spreads under the eye’s top layer (conjunctiva) and colours the white of the eye. The results are completely irreversible.
Eyeball tattooing briefly came to the public’s attention in 2012 when Jason Barnum faced an Alaskan court with half of his face tattooed, including an entirely black eyeball.
But Luna Cobra has been honing his technique for almost a decade. It all started after he saw a picture of a friend who had photoshopped his eyes to look like a character from cult sci-fi film Dune.
That friend agreed to become an eyeball tattooing guinea pig and make the photoshop a reality, on the condition that two other people would join him. Those two people were found, the experiment seemed to work and Luna Cobra has now performed about 100 eyeball tattoos worldwide, with clients — including about 20 in Australia — ranging from fellow tattoo artists to IT professionals and an increasing number of tradies.
He said it was almost entirely painless and that, with regular tattoos becoming increasingly commonplace, some people were looking for something that made them stand out. He was keen to emphasise that he’s always careful to vet his clients properly given the unusual nature of the practice.
“I think it’s just becoming a trend among people that just want to be super-extreme. But the worry is that they are just getting anyone to do it — or doing it themselves — and a lot of people have been hurt, gone blind or lost eyes from this — although I want to stress that hasn’t happened to any of my clients,” he says.
“But if some guy is sitting in his bathroom with boiled-down pen ink then he’s probably going to f*** himself up. These people are not looking up the history of it or the dangers of it or anything, they just think ‘oh it looks cool, let’s do it.’”
One of his more recent clients was also a colleague. Kylie Garth, 30 and living in WA, had her eyes tattooed to complete a look that includes scarification (cutting up the skin to create ‘designed’ scars), tattoos and several piercings.
She backed up Luna Cobra’s assertion that, despite appearances, the process was almost pain free. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t terrifying.
“There’s always that little element of fear so I was a bit scared,” she said of the day she had her eyeball tattoo done. “I knew that it wasn’t painful but still, when you’re lying in a chair and there’s a needle coming for your eye there’s always going to be that moment where you’re like ‘f***.’
“It’s the strangest thing, I felt some pressure, like a little bit of sand in my eye and then it was done. I stood up and burst in to tears afterwards because it was mentally so intense. It’s like skydiving or bungee jumping — you know it’s safe but still actually doing it is crazy. It was scarier than skydiving actually — I would go skydiving again before I had my eye done.”
While many people opt for black or other less ‘natural’ eye colours, Ms Garth opted for a relatively subtle pale blue tattoo to match the colour of her iris. She said this makes her look less threatening and confronting for others and she’s received only compliments on her new appearance.
However, she did admit that, because of her profession and circle of friends, the reaction to her tattoo may be different to the experience of most people and warned that anyone considering it should first seriously consider their future employment prospects.
But Luke Arundel, Senior Resident Optometrist at Optometry Australia says losing your job could be the least of your problems should you be tempted by an eyeball tattoo.
“The practice can put people at risk of pain, infection, inflammation and blindness,” he said. “And these risks from a purely cosmetic procedure have led to the procedure being banned in some states of America and other overseas countries.
“The procedure is not the same as conventional tattooing and because it is relatively new, there is no guarantee that cases which are currently ‘OK’ will not develop longer term complications. Eye surgeons have speculated that longer term problems may include granulomatous inflammation and carcinogenic changes.”
According to Mr Arundel, who says there have been several complications arising from procedures performed overseas, the margin of error when injecting an organ as delicate as the eye is tiny, particularly for people without medical training.
Even without the potential legislation that some American states have introduced, Luna Cobra believes the trend may have already peaked.
“I think it’s already got as mainstream as it possibly could be. Nine years ago when we first did this we never thought more than a hundred people would get this done in the history of ever. It was an absolute shock to find out how many people would do it but it now feels like it’s at maximum level.”
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