Woman who tattooed her eyeballs says procedure left her blind for three weeks

A woman has revealed how a procedure to tattoo her eyeballs with blue ink left her blind for three weeks.

Amber Luke from New South Wales, Australia, originally underwent the 40-minute procedure to transform her eyes.

It formed part of the $26,000 (£20K) the 24-year-old has spent on extreme body modification procedures including having her tongue split and earlobes stretched.

The body piercer also has more than 200 tattoos covering her body and has had breast augmentation, cheek and lip fillers and pointed implants placed in her ears.

But, Amber says the most dangerous procedure was getting blue ink injected into her eyeballs.

“I can't even begin to describe to you what the feeling was like, the best thing I can give you is once the eyeball was penetrated with the ink, it felt like [the tattoo artist] grabbed 10 shards of glass and rubbed it in my eye,” Amber revealed in a documentary for Barcroft TV.

“That happened four times per eye, that was pretty brutal. Unfortunately, my artist went too deep into my eyeball. If your eyeball procedure's done correctly, you're not supposed to go blind at all. I was blind for three weeks. That was pretty brutal.”

READ MORE: One in five procedures like tattoos and piercings end up infected, poll reveals

Following the procedure Amber said she doesn't intend to get extreme body modifications again.

“I don't plan on getting any more body modifications that are extreme in that manner. So no more tongue splitting, no more eyeball tattooing,” she said.

Instead she plans plans to fully cover her body in tattoos by her 25th birthday next spring.

Amber has previously spoken about the risky eyeball tattoo procedure.

“The procedure for getting my eyes done was only 40 minutes,” she told Daily Mail Australia.

“It was very intense and very painful. My eyes got held open while a syringe was injected into my eye four times per eye. I was blind for three weeks.”

READ MORE: Tattoo ideas that might convince you to take the plunge

She also carried out a Q&A on Instagram to inform her 152K followers about the procedure and the risks.

“Knowing I never have to get my eyeballs tattooed again makes me a very happy soul,” she wrote.

“A lot of people have asked me the question if my eye tattoos will fade; the answer is no. The ink naturally spreads through out the eye over time and my eyes actually got darker.”

During the short documentary, Vikki’s mother also spoke out about the eye transformation, admitting she broke down in tears when her daughter underwent the procedure.

“Where do I start? I cried. I said a few choice words as anyone would. ‘Why would you do that to yourself, knowing that there is a danger to it’,” Vikki told Barcroft TV.

READ MORE: Air New Zealand has ended its tattoo ban but how is ink received in UK companies?

Amber isn’t the only person to experience issues after getting their eyebrows tattooed.

Back in a 2017 a model warned she faces the risk of losing her eye after an attempt to tattoo her eyeball left her partially blind and crying purple tears.

Catt Gallinger, 24, from Ottawa in Canada, decided to have a purple scleral tattoo, which is when the sclera, or white part of the eyeball, is injected with dye.

But just hours after allowing her then boyfriend inject the purple ink into her left eye, it was clear something had gone wrong when her eye started leaking and became swollen, causing her sight to blur and leaving her facing the prospect of losing the vision in her eye completely.

In a series of emotional Facebook posts, the model revealed that she is in so much pain she fears she might need to have her eyeball removed and issued a heartfelt plea to others to think twice about getting eye tattoos.

“This was caused by undiluted ink, over injection, not enough/smaller injections sights,” she explains.

“I am NOT sharing this with you to cause trouble, I am sharing this to warn you to research who you get your procedures by as well as how the procedure should be properly done.”

Henry Leonard, the Association of Optometrists’ Clinical and Regulatory Officer in the UK, told HuffPost UK that there are some very real risks associated with eyeball tattoos.

“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,” he told the publication.

“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.”

If you are considering eyeball tattooing, Leonard suggested contacting your local optometrist or NHS eye clinic for more information and the potential risks to eye health.