Woman who’s covered in tattoos is blinded after having eyeballs inked
She didn’t see this coming.
An Australian woman who spent $26,000 on extreme tattoos, piercings and other physical modifications has revealed that she was blinded for three weeks after inking her eyeballs.
Amber Luke, 24, who calls herself the “Blue Eyes White Dragon,” underwent the agonizing 40-minute procedure to fulfill this vision of herself. The body piercing pro from the Central Coast of New South Wales has “about 200 tattoos” all over her body. Other enhancements include breast, lip, cheeks and whimsical elf-like ear implants.
But most excruciating of all was having blue dye injected all over the whites of her eyes, then temporarily losing her sight because of what she called a botched ink job.
“I can’t even begin to describe to you what the feeling was like, the best thing I can give you is once the eyeball was penetrated with the ink, it felt like [the tattoo artist] grabbed 10 shards of glass and rubbed it in my eye,” Luke told Barcroft TV.
According to Luke, her tattoo artist had gone “too deep” into the sclera.
“If your eyeball procedure’s done correctly, you’re not supposed to go blind at all. I was blind for three weeks. That was pretty brutal,” she said.
In an earlier interview, she told Daily Mail Australia about the nightmarish procedure: “It was very intense and very painful. My eyes got held open while a syringe was injected into my eye four times per eye.”
Luke, who also has a snake-like split tongue and stretched earlobes, said she doesn’t plan on any more “extreme” body modifications. However, she does plan to be covered in tattoos from head to foot by the time she is 25 next spring.
“So no more tongue splitting, no more eyeball tattooing,” she said.
The decision was a relief to Luke’s mother, Vikki, who also spoke to Barcroft TV.
“Where do I start? I cried,” said the concerned mom. “[Amber] never saw herself as being beautiful. She didn’t see herself through my eyes. But I’ve supported her because I could actually see the transition, the growth and how it’s made her come to who she is today.”
She continued, “I think over time, I’ve learned to actually understand that it doesn’t change you. It’s the society’s perception on it.”
Today Luke is a stark contrast from the photo she shared of her 14-year-old self on Instagram, a year before she was diagnosed at 15 for severe clinical depression.
“The glow up is real,” she wrote to her 139,000 followers. “What you see … is a girl who hated every aspect of herself.”
“People change, we grow up and we find ourselves along the way,” she added. “Don’t be scared to be who you want to be.”
Luke had her first tattoo done at 16-years-old, calling the experience a “negative energy release.”
“Everyone has their own opinion. Everyone knows what beauty is in their own eyes,” said the body-positive influencer, who said she hopes for “a bit more open-mindedness when it comes to body modification … in the community and within the workplace.”
