How Scleral Tattoos Work

The notion of a needle in the eye seems pretty horrible to most people.

In reality, though, doctors routinely give injections in the eye to deliver medicine to places where eyedrops can't reach, and they say that patients generally don't find it too painful, even though the sclera has nerve fibers in it [source: Kershner]. They lessen the discomfort by applying drops containing a chemical to numb the eye, and then inject a small amount of anesthetic into the eye itself before giving a deeper injection containing the actual medicine [source: Retina Eye Specialists]. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, eye doctors routinely injected ink into patients' eyes to cover up disfiguring corneal scars, though the practice pretty much was rendered obsolete by modern advances in reconstructive surgery [source: Pitz et al.].

Even so, getting a needle poked into your sclera, the protective outer layer of the eye, doesn't sound like something a person would choose to experience. That is, unless you're a hardcore tattoo buff who is used to enduring a little pain in order to look different from everyone else.

At a 2007 body-modification convention in Canada, three people actually volunteered to undergo a public experiment in which they had their eyes injected with ink by tattoo artists. (Doctors reportedly were consulted for advice, but none were willing to perform the procedure). The subjects used anesthetic drops to numb themselves beforehand, and it reportedly didn't hurt too badly afterward, though there was some discomfort [sources: Positano, Larratt].

The first subject tried a traditional "hand-poked" method, the process that tattoo artists used to put ink under the skin before modern electric tattoo machines. That turned out to be so cumbersome that it took 40 pokes to get the ink into the eye. After that, the experimenters switched to using a hypodermic needle, which turned out to work a little more efficiently. Even so, as one subject, Shannon Larratt, duly noted, "It is extremely difficult to get the needle into the right layer." Aftercare, he added, was antibiotic drops and a patch [sources: Positano, Larratt].

When people get tattoos on their skin, it's possible to create intricate, finely crafted drawings. But when you inject ink into your sclera, you're just staining the white of your eye. Shannon Larratt, who participated in the initial 2007 experiment, wrote that the goal was "to eventually fully fill in the white of the eye with blue" [source: Larratt].

But that leads to another question. Why would anyone want to have a sclera of a different color – and at such a risk? Lane Jensen, publisher of Tattoo & Piercing Magazine, tried to explain it to the New York Post in 2007: "It's trippy — and definitely starts some interesting conversations" [source: Positano].

Larratt explained in a later blog post that he wanted his eyes to resemble those of the Fremen, characters in science-fiction novelist Frank Herbert's "Dune" series. He described the result as "both subtle and extreme, in an effect that's completely alien, yet maintains its humanity and is almost even normal." People who notice his scleral tattooing "seem unsure of what they're seeing, whether it's natural, or a trick of the light, or something induced" [source: Larratt].

But Larratt doesn't encourage other people to rush out and get eyeball tattoos. Though he's undergone repeated scleral tattooing and so far hasn't suffered any significant ill-effects, he nevertheless warns that this permanent procedure is "high risk" [source: Larratt].

In an FAQ, he mentions that some subjects have experienced persistent pain "similar to a throbbing headache that never goes away" and sensitivity to light, and the sensation of having something caught in their eye. Injecting too much ink into the eye can also cause the sclera itself to break down and flake off into the vitreous humor, the interior of the eye. The result could be "floaters," annoying spots in a person's vision, or in a worst-case, loss of the eye itself [source: Larratt].

Doctors agree. Dr. Sandra Belmont, a clinical associate professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital, told the New York Post that eye tattooing could be very dangerous. Infection and hemorrhaging inside the eye are potential hazards, and an eyeball tattoo that went bad potentially could threaten a person's vision [source: Positano].

Dr. Douglas Meier, a Portland, Ore.-based ophthalmologist, took a similarly dim view of the practice in the Digital Journal. He noted that someone at working at home wouldn't have the medical knowledge or equipment to carry out the procedure safely [source: Hartman].