Dangerous new tattoo trend taking hold in Australia

If some unique ink isn’t enough to make you stand out in a crowd, why not put it in a not so run-of-the-mill place – like your eyeballs.

Eyeball tattoos are becoming a thing in Australia, and that understandably has medical professionals issuing warnings the practice can lead to impaired vision and even cancer, according to the Daily Mail.

Hundreds of people around the world have tatted peepers, including 20 Down Under, according to News Network.

The process involves permanently inking your sclera (the whites around the iris). The ink spreads underneath the top layer of the eye (conjunctiva) and voila, your eye has been irreversibly miscoloured.

The process came to the attention of John and Jane Public when a convicted criminal in Alaska made global headlines during his trial as news outlets around the world were less interested in his charges for attempting to murder a police officer but rather his jet black right eye.

Getting your eyes inked is certainly not without dangers.

An American rapper known as ‘Mace’ was rushed to hospital after undergoing the procedure on both of his eyes but said he’s made a full recovery.

But that wasn’t the case for a Los Angeles gang member who turned himself in to police in tears telling officers he’d spill the beans on whatever they wanted as long as they help get him back his vision – they couldn’t.

“I think it’s just becoming a trend among people that just want to be super-extreme,” tattoo artist and eye ink pioneer Luna Cobra told News Network. “But the worry is that they are just getting anyone to do it — or doing it themselves — and a lot of people have been hurt, gone blind or lost eyes from this — although I want to stress that hasn’t happened to any of my clients.”

“But if some guy is sitting in his bathroom with boiled-down pen ink then he’s probably going to f*** himself up,” Cobra said. “These people are not looking up the history of it or the dangers of it or anything, they just think ‘oh it looks cool, let’s do it.’”

Because of their health risks, performing eye tattoos has been made illegal in many states across the U.S.