'My daughter warned me’: Northern Ireland woman on verge of going blind after tattooing her eyeballs

Luke tattooed her eyes blue and went blind for three weeks before she regained her eyesight after a $250 000 (about R4.3 million) procedure. Picture: Chrissy Wainwright/Flickr.com

Luke tattooed her eyes blue and went blind for three weeks before she regained her eyesight after a $250 000 (about R4.3 million) procedure. Picture: Chrissy Wainwright/Flickr.com

Published Dec 8, 2022

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A Northern Ireland woman is living in horror at the possibility of going completely blind after she put tattoos on both her eyeballs.

Law student Anaya Peterson, 37, a staunch fanatic of ink, saw Australian model Amber Luke’s blue eyes and felt inspired to pimp her own.

Luke tattooed her eyes blue and went blind for three weeks before she regained her eyesight after a $250 000 (about R4.3 million) procedure.

One of Peterson’s five children discouraged her from getting eye tattoos, but she was resolute.

Daily Mail reported that Peterson had her right eye inked blue in 2020 and got the other one tatted purple after five months that same year.

This was despite experiencing headaches and dry eyes as she healed.

In August 2021, Peterson suddenly had swollen eyelids one morning, and her face looked puffed.

The situation deteriorated, and she got admitted to a hospital after antibiotics could not help her eyes’ reaction to the ink.

Doctors gave her medication through a drip for three consecutive days before performing a medical test on her eyeballs.

Eye care specialists said she is now most likely to contract glaucoma (a group of eye conditions that can cause blindness), and her sight is already deteriorating.

“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. I’m basically on the verge of going blind,” she said after not listening to her seven-year-old daughter.

“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, and 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.”