When it comes to body modification, these days you can pierce way more than your ears–you can pierce anything from your fingers to your actual teeth! But even if you’re the most hardcore piercing enthusiast, this new form of body modification might still make you squeamish. Presenting: jewelry you can have implanted right into your own eyeballs.
Fair Warning: this entire post is not for the weak of stomach!
Photo Credit: Dr. Emil Chynn
Eyeball jewelry, or “SafeSight” jewelry as it’s officially known, is a type of platinum jewelry that can be safely inserted into your eyeballs. Unfortunately for any gold or diamond aficionados, the jewelry is only available in platinum because it’s inert and has a lower chance of causing an allergic reaction.
SafeSight jewelry was first invented about ten years ago in the Netherlands, and it’s just been brought to the US by Dr. Emil Chynn, who runs New York City’s Park Avenue Laser Vision. If you want Dr. Chynn to bling out your eyeballs, it’ll cost you $10,000, but that’s only if you get the standard heart or star shapes. If you want custom eyeball jewelry, it’ll set you back another $5k. And if you ever want to swap out your jewelry for another piece, that’s another $5k.
But hey, that’s a small price to pay for a lifetime of strangers saying, “No seriously, you have something metal in your eye that looks very sharp and very dangerous. Hold still. Hold STILL!”
Photo Credit: @Javo_radio
While the price might be steep, at least the procedure itself is over in the blink of an eye (that can hopefully still see.) After disinfecting and anesthetizing the eyeball with eyedrops, Dr. Chynn props open the eye with a speculum and then makes an incision between the sclera (the white part of your eye) and the conjunctiva (the thin membrane protecting your eye), and finally inserts the implant. The whole thing takes five minutes total.
And if reading about it wasn’t enough, here’s a video of the procedure for your enjoyment:
As with anything involving eye surgery, a common first question many people have is, “Will this make me go blind?” Low demand means Dr. Chynn has only performed the procedure on three patients in the US, but he insists the procedure is safe. “It’s been successfully implanted into hundreds of patients’ eyes in Europe without a single major complication or adverse event,” he told The Mirror.
And if you prefer a doctor with a good track record, Dr. Chynn has a pretty good one. In his 22 years in ophthalmology, he’s performed over 20,000 surgeries with a perfect track record–meaning 100% of patients were legally allowed to drive, and he’s never been sued for malpractice.
Photo Credit: The Daily Net
Not everyone is convinced, however. The American Academy of Ophthalmology urges caution for anyone considering the eye jewelry. According to Dr. Philip R. Rizzuto, ophthalmologist and the academy’s spokesman:
“The American Academy of Ophthalmology has not identified sufficient evidence to support the safety or therapeutic value of this procedure. It urges consumers to avoid placing in the eye any foreign body or material that is not proven to be medically safe or approved by the FDA.”
And to that I say: killjoy! Take a look at one piece of SafeSight jewelry embedded in someone’s raw, veiny eyeball–so veiny you can’t even see the jewelry unless you’re up close to it–and tell me it’s absurd.
Photo Credit: Chick and the Dead
Yeah, I think I’ll stick with temporary tattoos.
h/t: The Daily Net