A student is going blind after she had her eyes tattooed.
Anaya Peterson, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, says she was inspired by Australian model Amber Luke, who dyed her eyeballs blue back in 2019.
Luke actually went blind herself for several weeks after the procedure, though she later regained her sight.
However, mum-of-five Peterson did not let the scare from her young daughter's warnings put her off following in her footsteps, a decision she now regrets.
Advert
The 32-year-old got her right eyeball tattooed blue in July 2020, and despite suffering from headaches and dry eyes as 'part of the healing process', she went and got the other eye dyed purple later that year.
A few months passed by and everything seemed fine, until she woke up with swollen eyelids and a face that looked as if she'd just gone '10 rounds with Mike Tyson'.
After antibiotics didn't work, Anaya was rushed to A&E and was put on a drip for three days.
"My daughter told me that I didn't want to do that [the tattoo] asking, 'what if you go blind?' She wasn't on board with it at all," she recalled.
"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 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
"I took the option to go [to hospital] myself. They gave me surgery and took samples of my eye.
"I just wanted to be at home watching [TV] to be honest. I can't even put it into words. It wasn't nice at all whatsoever.
"It was traumatising 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."
While she is 'on the mend', Anaya says that she deeply regrets getting the tattoo.
Her eyesight is already worsening, with her vision blurred by 'thousands of floaters' and she's been told that she is at a very high risk of contracting glaucoma.
The law student said: "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.
"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.
"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."
She added: "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."
Amber Luke said: "I would highly recommend and suggest that you do immense research.
"Make sure you ask the artists botched rate - the procedures that went wrong. I personally would also recommend mentally preparing yourself for seeing a needle go into your eyeball. The anxiety is high as hell."
Dominic Smithers