For those of us that are squeamish about eye drops, the news that tattooing your eyeball has grown in popularity will be met with a silent scream.
While tattooing various parts of our bodies - from legs and arms to backs - have become the norm within society, eyeball tattoos remain relatively uncommon.
“I studied the eye and spoke with a few doctors and surgeons, and then started to do this almost ten years ago now, ” Cobra told The HuffPost UK.
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“Since then I have continued to refine the procedure to make it safer. During the past 10 years I have collected a lot of data in relation to ink, reactions, needles and more.”
As much as Cobra has spent years perfecting the practice, he still believes people can put themselves in danger when opting for the inking.
“It is very dangerous and without medical back-up - and some base medical education - any person offering this would be putting clients at serious risk of vision complications, and blindness, ” Cobra said.
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Cobra believes so strongly in the art inking, he thinks the most viable option for all is if the government stepped in to control it.
“The best way to make eyeball tattooing safe would be for governments to make this legal only for eye surgeons, ” Cobra commented.
And he’s not alone. Henry Leonard, the Association of Optometrists’ Clinical and Regulatory Officer in the UK, knows of the permanent detrimental damage that could happen if the tattoo went wrong.
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“Firstly, as with all tattoos, infection is a real possibility. Unsterilised needles and work surfaces could lead to the prone patient picking up a nasty pathogen, ” Leonard told The HuffPost UK.
“Tattooing the sclera, the white part of the eye, has the potential to permanently damage a person’s eye and could affect their ability to see.
“This non-medical procedure is still relatively new and so we don’t know whether there might be any long-term effects or permanent risk to vision and eye health.”
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“If you, or anyone you know, are planning on getting an eye tattoo, contact your local optometrist or NHS eye clinic for more information on the potential dangers to your eye health.”
By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.The sentencing of a convicted criminal with an eyeball tattoo in an Alaskan court has drawn attention to an unusual form of facial decoration - one that is less than a decade old, but winning new converts all the time.
Jason Barnum, 39, who pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a policeman, has ornate tattoos on his head and part of his face - teeth on his cheek, an eyeball in middle of his forehead. But even more dramatically, the white of his right eye has been tattooed jet black.
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Arguing for the prosecution, Anchorage Police Department Chief Mark Mew urged the judge to take a look at Barnum's face which, he said, showed the convicted criminal had decided a long time ago that his life was about being hostile to people.
But, in tattooing his eyeball, was Barnum really expressing hostility to the rest of society? And if our eyes really are the window to our soul what else might a tattooed eyeball say about its owner?
The man who first experimented with injecting ink into an eyeball is a US tattoo artist who goes by the name of Luna Cobra. Far from wanting to look evil, the original goal was to look like the blue-eyed characters from the cult science fiction film, Dune.
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That year, an old friend had Photoshopped a picture of his eyes to look blue like in Dune. I told him, 'I think I can do that for real.'
I'm aware of how insane that sounds, but I've been doing this type of thing for my whole life so I wasn't coming from nowhere with this, he says.
His technique, which he has modified over the years, involves injecting pigment directly into the eyeball so it rests under the eye's thin top layer, or conjunctiva.
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A single small injection has enough ink to cover about a quarter of the eye. It takes several injections to completely cover the sclera, which is then coloured for life. He has done it for hundreds of people - in blue, green, red and black - from Singapore and Sydney to London and the US.
If you want to amuse yourself by decorating your eyeball, why not do it? he says. 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.
Looking a little out-of-this world is something that appealed to Kylie Garth, a body piercer who works in Luna Cobra's Sydney studio. Before deciding to change the colour of her eyeballs, Garth had experimented with a number of body modifications including face tattoos, piercings, elf-like pointed ears and a bifurcated tongue.
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It was mentally intense, she says of the several injections needed to colour her eyeballs a delicate blue-green, a colour she refers to as sea foam.
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.
One customer who might disagree with this is a Polish rapper, Popek, who was filmed having his eyes tattooed green by Luna Cobra in London. A couple of days later he experienced a painful burning sensation in his eyes that prevented him sleeping.
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Fortunately, it was temporary - he was later reported to be considering going back under the needle to darken the tattoos - but opticians warn about a risk of damage to the eyes, and even loss of vision.
It's thinking about getting a needle in your eye that makes people say, 'I can't believe you did that.' But I've never had anyone say my eyes look scary, she says.
I tell them you're going to look frightening forever to the majority of people you encounter. You might find people have trouble connecting with you or looking at you because they can't follow your iris.
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Luna Cobra says he urges young people to wait until they have a job before getting a black eyeball tattoo, because otherwise they may never get hired.
I was living on the streets, and I tried to get a job, but of course my beautiful face didn't allow me to do that, Barnum said at his sentencing in Anchorage.
But whether or not Barnum intended to shock, many of Luna Cobra's clients are hoping to do just that. Some dismiss his warnings saying it would be cool to frighten people. Others say they don't care.
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Over the past few years, some US prison inmates, who already use tattoos to signal their crimes and gang affiliations, have attempted to colour their own eyeballs.
An episode of the US reality TV programme, Lockup, shows two inmates who try to tattoo their eyeballs blue and red using smuggled-in instruments.
Everybody's got tattoos, everybody's got stretched ears [but] you never see anybody with the whites of their eyes tattooed, says prisoner David Boltjes, explaining why he took a huge risk to inject himself.
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Luna Cobra says that what started as an experiment between friends, and fans of Dune, has run out of control. He's also heard that it's fashionable among Brazilian teenagers and in some Russian sub-cultures - and worries that people could be being harmed.
We often felt like we released a beast into the world and now all these people will be damaged, he says referring to the many ways the tattooing process can go wrong - from using the wrong ink and needle to injecting too much pigment or going too deep.
For its part, the American Optometric Association unequivocally condemns the practice, saying it puts the patient at risk of infection, inflammation and blindness.
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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.
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.
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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.
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