Today in WTF?! news, I bring you keratopigmentation, or as the kids are calling it, “eye tattooing.” True to what it sounds like, the cosmetic procedure involves a pigment-filled needle going into your cornea to cover the iris with a new permanent eye color. I’m almost always out by the time I hear “needle” (except for the health and civic duties to stay vaccinated and give blood), but a needle in the eye?? No. Nope to the no no no. Not for me, never will be. But apparently it’s popular, with one ophthalmologist amassing millions of followers on TikTok where he shares before and after pics of patients. But though this Doc loves the work he’s doing, the American Academy of Ophthalmology would like to remind us that the inherent risks of surgery could easily end up harming your eyesight:
A procedure known as keratopigmentation—where color pigment is injected into the cornea to cover the natural iris, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology—has been gaining popularity on social media with its promise to permanently change patients’ eye color in just a matter of minutes.
Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, an ophthalmologist with over 3.4 million TikTok followers, has accrued tens of millions of video views on the platform with clips of his patients’ before-and-after transformations, including one where a woman was overcome with emotion after successfully undergoing the operation to change her eye color to olive green.
“I love it. The color is very natural,” she said in the video, adding that she felt no pain after the surgery. “It’s amazing.”
The video concluded with a notice that the procedure—also known as eye tattooing—could cause “light sensitivity and scratchiness,” but some experts say the risks can be much more extensive.
In January 2024, the American Academy of Ophthalmology issued a release cautioning against the procedure, as they warned of “serious risks for vision loss and complications” including damage to the cornea, bacterial or fungal infection and leakage of the dye into the eye.
“Don’t think that these surgeries carry no risk,” AAO clinical spokesperson JoAnn A. Giaconi, MD, said in the release. “No surgery is free of risk. With purely cosmetic surgeries on the eye, it’s just not worth the risk when it comes to your good vision.”
But Wachler dismissed the advisory as “make believe facts about the dangers of this procedure,” adding that he intends to challenge the Academy’s stance.
“This is going to help make [patients] happy,” he told NBC affiliate WXII in October. “This is what they have dreamed of. And now the technology is there, and it’s proving to allow them to have it.”
Egads. I don’t even have to ponder the possibility of this, given the needle quotient. Just getting through reading this article was a serious strain on my nerves! But if I really had a burning desire to change my eye color, I would check out contact lenses to achieve the look. Also, as a general rule, I don’t source my doctors on TikTok. Very old fashioned of me, I know. (And to this doctor in particular: remember, your job isn’t only to make patients happy, but to first do no harm.) But really, folks, be safe in how and who you let treat your bodies! And if possible, let’s try to love ourselves as we are? I realize it’s the great journey/struggle of life. Case in point: my mother has blue eyes, but she’s always had a striking brown patch in just one eye. As a kid she didn’t love it, and accused her own mother of making her from a kit. Recently, though, she had cataract surgery (it went perfectly!), and one of her biggest worries going into it was that the brown spot would somehow be affected. Thankfully it wasn’t, and she gets to enjoy it even more now that her vision is so much better!
Photos via Instagram/Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler