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EYEBALL TATTOOS

4/28/2015

13 Comments

 
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There is a new trend out there – eyeball tattoos.

Striking – sure...different – for now...but please think carefully before choosing to look like this for the rest of your life – THEY CANNOT BE REMOVED.

When tattoo pigment is injected into the skin, the body recognises it as foreign (not itself) and then tries to remove it, to protect the rest of the body. Because the ink particles are larger than the white cells of the body, this is a slow and laborious process

Laser tattoo removal works because the pigment in the tattoo absorbs the laser light, shattering the ink particles into smaller ones which can then be removed by the white cells and excreted by the body.

On the skin, the laser works great, gradually fading the tattoo without causing scarring.

On the eyeball, it would cause an explosion of pigment which, because the eyeball is lined with pigment, would cause an explosion of the eyeball.

So, at present, there is no way of clearing, removing or fading these tattoos.

They will be there forever, for everyone to see, whether you want them to, or not.

Our eyes are so precious. They are the first thing most people look at when they want to learn more about us.

When we tattoo our eyes, we attempt to mask our true beauty.

Is it possible that eyeball tattoos are the most visible form of hiding – that while they have a shock value and are impossible not to notice, their real effect is to obscure our true nature – our deep beauty and sensitivity – from those around us?
13 Comments
Pinky
4/24/2015 12:42:27 pm

You see a person through their eyes - it's the window to their soul. If the eyes are tattooed and not in their natural state, who are we really looking at? A person hiding behind a tattoo?
I've known people who have skin tattoos and after some time (months or years) for many the novelty wears off and they’ve wanted them removed. With skin tattoos you can get them removed via lazer surgery but eye tattoos you can't even remove them! Eye tattoos are permanent and what if you change your mind after sometime?? You’re stuck with having your eyes look like that forever! There are other ways to decorate your eyes, like coloured contact lens.

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Anne
5/17/2016 08:47:10 pm

There are indeed other ways to decorate ourselves, Pinky, that come with much less risk and have the added bonus of being much less dangerous and reversible.
Contact lenses would be preferable, but these also come with risks, and should only be used under supervision from an optometrist or ophthalmologist.

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Marianna
4/24/2015 09:23:01 pm

HI Anne, what are the risks of getting the tattoos in the first place? Surely the process of putting ink into the eye can potentially damage the eye?

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Anne link
5/17/2016 08:44:11 pm

Hi Marianna, absolutely, there are risks.
We are talking about doing a surgical procedure on the eye, for which those of us who are licensed spend years in training!
The most obvious risks are perforating the eyeball, causing bleeding into the eye, retinal detachment, infection, all of which could cause loss of vision and loss of the eye.
Increasingly, tattoos are being associated with inflammation in the body, and as skin tattoos are causing eye inflammation, it makes sense that eye tattoos would cause more.
The main risk would be tattoo regret, which in this case is untreatable.

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Giselle
4/24/2015 10:37:16 pm

Absolutely frightening that this is happening - to look into an eye that has been tattooed brings nothing but deep sadness.

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Anne
5/17/2016 08:52:27 pm

Hi Giselle,
To look into an eye that has been tattooed is a beautiful opportunity to observe, read and deepen our awareness and understanding. We all do things for a reason and the more we can understand why someone would make such a choice, the more we can open and accept them as they are. We are all equally beautiful on the inside.

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Susan Lee link
5/1/2015 09:15:51 am

Not allowing others to see who we are through our eyes feels like we are shutting ourselves off from the world totally. It feels like death - an existence that is all about getting through life rather than living life. Tattooing your eyeballs feels like the final close down from the world.

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Anne
5/17/2016 08:49:57 pm

Hi Susan, we can still look deeply into someone's eyes, even if they have been tattooed, and it is important to remember that those eyes belong to a deeply sensitive person, just like us.
They may have rejected their own natural beauty, but we can still see them as the beautiful person they truly are.

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Sam Daniels link
5/16/2015 03:51:28 pm

Wow, that is sickening looking at that eyeball. Ouch!
http://www.findtattooremoval.com.au/

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Ken
2/1/2017 10:27:38 pm

I'm curious as to why the eyeball tattoos are so permanent. A subconjunctival hemorrhage, which I assume is blood in the same place as the ink, will clear in a week or two yet the tattoo ink remains indefinitely. Why is this?

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Anne Malatt
2/2/2017 06:14:07 am

Hi Ken,
Great question.
Yes, the ink is in the subconjunctival space (hopefully that is as deep as they go, anyway!).
It is permanent for the same reason a skin tattoo is permanent. A skin bruise or an eye bruise clear after a few days to weeks because the body's white blood cells come in and clean up the debris.
The tattoo ink particles are too large for the white cells to ingest, so they stay put. That is the principle of laser tattoo removal – it breaks the pigment granules up into smaller particles that the body's cells can then clear. The problem is that you cannot do this to the eye – the laser energy would be absorbed by the pigment in the eyeball and cause severe damage...

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Mike
10/7/2019 04:25:13 pm

Considering getting a tattoo such as this right now, of course by doctors and not some street artist. Since I don't have much to lose, seems like a fun last hurrah.

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Anne Malatt link
10/7/2019 04:32:12 pm

Hi Mike,
if you are alive with two healthy eyes, you have a lot to lose! You can lose your eyesight, and if you get an infection, it could spread to the brain or further and you could lost your life.
I would suggest that you work on looking at why you think you don't have a lot to lose in life, rather than getting a tattoo to numb and distract you from what you are feeling.
And as an eye doctor, I sincerely hope that there are no doctors out there offering this procedure - there is nothing medical or healing about it.

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    Anne Malatt is an eye surgeon with over 25 years of experience. She also performs laser tattoo removal, because she loves skin, as well as eyes!

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