Trending News

Man With Tattooed Eyes Cried Ink For Two Days

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Apr 18, 2013 09:25 AM EDT

Getting permanently inked could be considered a form of expression, and for some people, one tattoo is simple not enough, which is exactly the case for Brazilian man, Rodrigo Fernando dos Santos. Santos, who is a 39-year-old tattoo artist, has over 70 percent of his body covered in tattoos. Despite being full of tattoos, Santos wanted even more and decided to tattoo his eyeballs. The procedure, which is not recommended but has been on the rise, involves injecting ink directly into the white parts of the eyes. After the painful procedure, Santos stated that he "cried ink for twos days."

Santos added that even after some of the ink spilled out, he still considers his eyes "half gray." Santos, who is known as 'Musquito' by his friends in Sao Paulo, paid the equivalent of nearly $500 to his fellow tattoo artist, Rafael Leao Dias, to perform the procedure.

"There is no drilling. We apply the ink between the conjunctive and sclera layer that protects the eye. I studied the procedure for two years and performed my first application in Oct. 2012. The law does not prohibit this, here or abroad. There is no risk or discomfort due to the use of specific eyewash," Dias explained to MyHealthBowl.com. Dias appeared to have used the Canadian technique that was developed six years ago by a Vancouver-based artist, Russ Foxx.

Just like getting any other tattoos on the body, tattooing the eyes is a permanent procedure. Several eye specialists strongly believe that tattooing the eyes can cause serious inflammation and even vision loss depending on how that area responds to the procedure. Since eye tattooing has more recently taken ground, the possible long-term effects are unknown as well. Regardless, Santos went along with the tattoo, which people speculated used the same ink for body tattoos. The process required a syringe that was directly injected in the sclera, which is the protective out layer of the eye. Although the process sounds quite scary and painful, eye tattooing is said to be a growing trend. An Australian tattoo artist claims to be the first ever recipient of this new kind of tattoo.

Tattooing in general has been around for centuries and has been practiced globally. The popularity of getting full body tattoos has greatly increased after several celebrities, such as soccer star, David Beckham, have displayed their full body art. Despite the trend of getting covered in ink, the idea of eye tattoos is still relatively new and definitely sounds pretty scary.

© 2023 Counsel & Heal All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics