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Province eyes banning “dangerous” cosmetic tattoo

December 15, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Cosmetic eyeball tattooing and the implanting of eye jewellery may soon be banned in Ontario.

The provincial government has amended a health-care bill – Bill 160 – to include barring eyeball tattooing and eye jewellery by unlicensed and unqualified people.

The practice received a lot of attention when a 24-year-old model from Ottawa developed major complications after allowing someone to dye her right eye a purple colour in September.

The procedure uses a needle to inject diluted ink directly into the white portion of the eye.

Medical professionals urged the Ontario government to ban the practice after seeing photos of the young woman and learning that the practice is increasing in popularity. They call it an ‘invasive procedure’ done in a ‘completely unregulated fashion.’

Trained ophthalmologists do occasionally use tattoo ink for medical purposes but those procedures are carried out in a sterile operating room.

With tattooing and body modifications now fairly commonplace, anyone wanting a piercing or tattoo should make sure it is done properly with sterilized equipment.

Keith Winterbottom, owner of Citrus City Tattoo in Orangeville, said he’s had requests to do the eye tattoo procedure but he doesn’t even consider it to be tattooing.

“In the very first word of it all – it’s not tattooing. It’s a surgical procedure where they use a hypodermic needle and they inject fluid into the eye,” Mr. Winterbottom said. “It’s a one-shot deal. It’s not tattooing and it’s not safe. I know one girl who had it done two years ago on the east coast and now she’s blind in one eye. I’ve had one or two people request it during my career. I tell them to take a look in the mirror and really think about it. When you do it, there’s no going back.”

Mr. Winterbottom considers himself an artist first and his tattoo shop does ink-on-skin tattooing only. They don’t offers piercings because, as he puts it, “It’s 50 / 50 when it comes to them healing properly. It’s just a risky business.”

Having your eyeball filled with ink is something that will be with you for life even if you don’t have complications. Even then, no one yet knows the long-term effects that might occur.

Mr. Winterbottom counsels clients when they come into his shop looking for a tattoo that he doesn’t think will work well.

“I crush dreams all the time. I tell people straight up – that tattoo isn’t going to work, it’s not going to look good there, you’re not going to get a job with that tattoo.”

Some people take his advice, others don’t.

Putting a needle in someone’s eye is something he wouldn’t even consider.

Currently there are no regulations regarding eye tattoos.

The amended bill to ban the practice by unregulated people has received unanimous support in the provincial legislature.

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