A woman whose eyeball tattoo went horribly wrong has said she is considering surgically removing the eye.
Canadian woman Caitlin Gallinger, 24, has suffered swelling and other side effects following a September tattoo on the white of her right eyeball in Ottawa.
She claims the tattoo artist, her then-boyfriend, did not dilute the ink and used too much of it when he gave her the eyeball tattoo.
Her eye began leaking purple ink and hurting intensely shortly after she received the tattoo, she said in a Facebook post.
Canadian woman Caitlin Gallinger, 24, has suffered swelling and other side effects following a September tattoo on the white of her right eyeball in Ottawa
Gallinger, who works as a model, already has dozens of other tattoos and underwent a procedure to surgically split her tongue, making it forked
She said that she agreed to get the eyeball tattoo because her then-boyfriend, who performed the procedure, pressured her into letting him do it
Weeks later, the eye was still swollen shout and she was at risk of losing her sight in that eye after three hospitalizations, she said.
‘Just please be cautious who you get your mods from and do your research. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,’ she said.
Now, three months after getting the tattoo, she says she can barely open the eye without significant effort.
‘This is beyond heartbreaking,’ she wrote on Facebook.
‘Since I’ve always been honest on here, I will continue to be. My hope is gone. I’m very close to asking for removal.. I’m so tired of it all,’ she said.
Gallinger, who works as a model, already has dozens of other tattoos and underwent a procedure to surgically split her tongue, making it forked.
Gallinger’s eyes are seen before and after the procedure in this composite image
Doctors warn that eye tattoos, which were first performed about a decade ago, could have serious risks
‘Body modification is something that is growing more popular every day. It’s a big part of my life,’ she told Time.
‘I have a lot of my friends who have had [eyeball tattoos] done and have had it done well. It was something I was interested in.’
She said that she agreed to get the eyeball tattoo because her then-boyfriend, who performed the procedure, pressured her into letting him do it.
Doctors warn that eye tattoos, which were first performed about a decade ago, could have serious risks.
‘There are a substantial number of short-term risks associated with this procedure,’ according to an April report in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
‘Long-term effects on the eyes and vision are still unknown, but in a worst case scenario could include loss of vision or permanent damage to the eyes.’