Quite the Spectacle! Eyewear-Related Body Mods~ PART II

Warmest weekend greetings, darklings!

I first want to start off saying that this time is my absolute favorite time of  year, and I'm in a great mood. Because of this, I will be posting not just one, but two topics this weekend.

As  you may have guessed from the title, I actually managed to find one more body mod, that, while not necessarily related to eyewear, is most definitely related to the eyes. The following is certainty *not* for the squeamish; in fact, despite considering myself to be tough as nails, I cringe at the thought of having this procedure done on myself. That having been said, I think the end result is rather cool, though I would NEVER recommend it due to the great risk involved.

I actually came across this particular mod because I was Googling ideas for an eye tattoo for myself, something along the lines of Alex Grey's work, or perhaps an Eye of Horus. After searching for a little less than half an hour, I decided to broaden my search to "eye tattoo."

 

During this search, I found a link to a story about two prison inmates who have tattooed the scleras (whites) of their eyes. I'll give you a moment to ruminate that for a second. Permanent ink. Injected. Into their eyes (as so eloquently put, the groin of the head). Oh yeah, and in prison. 

 Although the blue color isn't my cup of tea, I rather like the red.

 It appears that scleral tattooing is really something that people do. The two prisoners aren't the only ones to have this modification; this seems to be something that's starting to catch on, as my research has shown. Let me sum up the excerpt  from the wikipedia page, just to let it sink in a little more as to just how hardcore this truly is.

"The tattoo artist tried two different procedures, the first covering the needle with ink and puncturing the eye."
 This procedure failed, however the second procedure, in which "the sclera was injected with blue dye" proved to be much more successful.

Although there are few nerve endings in the injection site, it still doesn't seem to be a walk in the park, especially when considering the possible side effects of "some blisters between the sclera and conjunctiva {...}infection, perforation, and hemorrhage" and of course, the ever-present risk of blindness.

Source: Bizarre Magazine

Aside from the omniscient collection of data that we so affectionately call Wikipedia, I was fortunate enough to come across an article with some extra details. It's believed that this technique has been around for quite some time, perhaps as early as the late 1800's for medical reasons. Although this article was interesting, I can't help but feel like one of the gentlemen, Shannon, really didn't know what he was talking about, stating that “The eye is very resilient; you can put almost anything in it. Your eye actually is designed to be able to handle contaminants being there.” Granted, yes, the eye *is* designed to flush out impurities by creating tears and flushing them out of the lacrimal ducts, but this is something that happens naturally and externally. Also, if this tattooing technique has been around since only the late 1800's/1900's, that most definitely DOES NOT make it "one of the oldest forms of tattooing."

Irezumi out-dates scleral tattooing only by a couple of thousand years.

 Ranting and correcting aside, I have to hand it to him for having the huevos to get this bold and risky modification.

This handsome gentleman has opted for a feline yellow tint..

...while this young fella prefers cerulean ink.

I also happened to find another article crediting a man in Toronto as being the very first to have this procedure, though I couldn't find a name. Judging by the comments, this article is from some time in 2008. Let me again elaborate just how extreme this mod is. 

"It took 40 injections of blue ink in order to complete this procedure. Pigment was injected under the top layer of the eye using a syringe. The syringe injected the ink into the eye. At first they had tried a traditional needle with ink on it, but when the ink didn't hold, they switched to the syringe."

Now, I've saved the best for last. There's nothing like curling up with a nice video.

I personally like the color combination in this video best of all the others I've seen. The black ink contrasts stunningly with this gentleman's already beautiful light hazel eyes.

So there you have it, readers. I didn't think I'd be making a part II after the original article, since it seems that eye wear (and eye care) and body mods rarely overlap. Perhaps I'll find more material to post a part III over mods and eyes.

As I mentioned, there will be a bonus topic this weekend, so keep on the lookout!

Until then my spookies, stay safe and refracted,
Sea, the Gothic Optician, A.B.O.C.