Scleral tattooing

In late 2007, Body Modification Ezine wrote an article describing the first three scleral tattoo procedures performed on sighted eyes. The artist known as Luna Cobra (Howard "Howie" Rollins) experimented on three volunteers; Shannon Larratt, Joshua Matthew Rahn and Paul Mowery (aka "Pauly Unstoppable", today known as Farrah Flawless).[2][3][4] Larratt got the idea after Dutch eye surgeon Gerrit R. J. Melles gave Shannon's then-wife Rachel Larratt an eye implant.[5] The technique is similar to the established method practiced by eye surgeons who use implants on their patients for various eye problems, with the difference that it is performed for aesthetic reasons on healthy eyes with visible implants.[6] She had a small piece of thin platinum jewelry inserted over the sclera, which is the white layer of the eye, and under the conjunctiva, which is a clear layer covering the sclera. The method Melles had developed included injecting a small drop of saline in order to create a fluid filled pocket before inserting the implant into this pocket, which would gradually shrink and leave only the jewelry behind. Shannon then imagined the saline being replaced with ink, which would spread and end up as a colored layer between the sclera and the conjunctiva, giving the white of the eye a new color.[7]

Being a fan of Frank Herbert's Dune, Shannon had photoshopped the eyes of his own picture to look like the blue eyes of the Fremen in the novel. He and Luna Cobra then tried to figure out how to color his eyes permanently blue. Eventually Cobra agreed to give it a try if Shannon could find two other people willing to have their eyeballs colored (of these three only Farrah is still alive, making her the person in the world who has had sclera tattoos for the longest period of time).[8] Both Larratt and Rahn died from causes unrelated to the procedure.

Luna Cobra tried two different procedures, the first covering the needle with ink and puncturing the eye. This method was deemed unsuccessful, and the second method was attempted. This procedure, in which the sclera was injected with blue dye, was successful. The procedures were "effectively painless because there aren't nerve endings in the surface of the eye," says the article's author Shannon Larratt. The aftereffects include "fairly minor" pain, bruising, and some discomfort. Also, the author, who had the procedure performed on himself, seems to have some blisters between the sclera and conjunctiva. The author twice indicates the risks and possible complications, the most important including blindness, of the procedure and warns that it should not be performed without a professional.[9] Scleral tattooing is still a new body modification, and potential longterm effects have therefore still not manifested themselves.

In 2009 the Oklahoma Senate passed Senate Bill 844, filed by Oklahoma Senator Cliff Branan and supported by the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology, to make it illegal to tattoo the sclera of the eye.[10][11]

The Canadian provinces of Ontario (Feb 2017) and Saskatchewan (Jan 2020) have banned scleral tattoos and the implantation of eye jewellery under the conjunctiva.