‘I Tattooed My Eyeballs Purple And Blue—Now I’m Going Blind’

The Daily Mail recently reported the story of a woman from Belfast who tattooed eyeballs- a procedure now causing her to go blind. The woman in question, Anaya Peterson, had to be hospitalized after her eyelids started swelling. Now, she faces the risk of permanent blindness.

The 32-year-old mother and law student also put up a video on TikTok where she talked about her decision to tattoo her eyeballs. She stated that she was inspired by Amber Luke, a tattoo model from Australia, who is also called the blue-eyed white dragon. While Luke managed to escape blindness, Peterson is not that fortunate. 

Belfast Woman Inspired to Tattoo Her Eyeballs

Peterson stated, “My eyelid started to swell, and my bottom eyelid started to swell. It kept getting worse and worse. I looked like I’d done ten rounds with Mike Tyson.” This wasn’t the first tattoo rodeo of Peterson, who already has a few face and body piercings- as well as a split tongue. After inking her eyeballs, she was already temporarily blind for close to three weeks, and her seven-year-old daughter told her mom that she was worried she would go blind. Now Peterson laments that she didn’t listen to her child- and tattooed one eyeball rather than both of them. One user on TikTok commented, “Your daughter knew better than you.” Another user said, “It’s supposed to be mama knows best. Not pickni is smarter than mother. Poor baby.”

All the ophthalmologists she consulted told her the same thing. They all spoke about how she was at an extremely high risk of getting glaucoma and that her vision was slowly being clouded with close to hundreds of thousands of floaters. The law student also mentioned that she had already lost her 20/20 vision and could not recognize people’s facial features from a short distance. She wrote. “If I didn’t have my eyeballs tattooed, I wouldn’t be having this problem. Even today I woke up with more floaters in my eyes. And that is dangerous.” When she was asked why she had taken this step, this woman from Belfast stated she did it to simply sit at home and watch television. 

Sometimes, Parents Can Learn From Their Kids Too

Anaya’s daughter was never in acceptance of the unusual tattoo, and the unusually bright child did warn her mother several times that the tattoos were simply not worth the risk. Now, after realizing her daughter was correct, Anaya admitted, “I was just going to get one eye tattoo at first because I thought that if I go blind, at least I’ve got the other eye. I should have stuck with that. My daughter told me that I didn’t want to do that asking, ‘What if you go blind?’ She wasn’t on board with it at all.

My top eyelid started to swell, and my bottom eyelid started to swell. It kept getting worse and worse. I looked like I’d done ten rounds with Mike Tyson. I took the option to go to the hospital myself. They gave me surgery and took samples of my eye. They wouldn’t have been able to do it while I was awake, I would have been an absolute nightmare, so they put me to sleep. It was traumatizing to go through. I just remember thinking, I’m not doing that sh*t again, with the eye tattoo. I’m definitely not doing that sh*t again.”

Read: I have the most tattooed privates in the world — it hurts but I’m brave

The Consequences of Tattooed Eyeballs- High Risk of Permanent Blindness

While Peterson left the surgery on the mend, the ordeal left a lasting impact on the law student. She has claimed that her university is supporting her through this tough time and is also being provided with several applications that have made reading easier for her- along with counseling.

Fortunately, Peterson is still looking at things from a very positive outset- and has claimed that all the negative comments she receives are just par for the course. She recently stated, “I’m kind of recovered- on the outside, it’s recovered. It’s just inside. I’m basically on the verge of going blind. I don’t have 20/20 vision anymore. From a distance, I can’t see features on faces. I can’t get these eye tattoos out. I’m always going to have this problem. So, I basically think that as I get older, it’s just best to let me go blind. When I’m 60 or 70, I don’t want to have to go to the eye doctor every two or three days. If I could go back in time, I would have done one black eye tattoo and left it. I would have done one black. Absolutely.”

Anaya Peterson also spoke about her words of wisdom for her daughter. “I tell my daughter not to care about the opinions of someone else because they’re just ordinary people like you. You have positive and negative comments, but the negative comments always overshadow the positive ones.”

Keep Reading: Model Says She Struggles To Get Employment With 99% Of Her Body Tattooed