A mum admits she regrets not listening to her daughter’s warning she could go blind if she got her eyeballs tattooed – as she is now losing her sight. Law student Anaya Peterson, 32, from Northern Ireland, was inspired by ‘blue-eyed dragon’ Amber Luke, an Australian model who went blind for three weeks after dyeing her eyeballs blue in 2019.
The mum-of-five, from Belfast, was left hospitalised after her eye alteration and faced permanent blindness after a suspected reaction to the eyeball ink. The body modification fanatic got her right eyeball tattooed blue in July 2020, and despite dealing with headaches and dry eyes as part of the healing process, she opted to get her left eye dyed purple later that year.
After months without complications, Anaya woke up in August 2021 to find her eyelids appeared swollen as though her “face had been inflated with air” and looking like she had “done ten rounds with Mike Tyson.” As the swelling worsened, Anaya checked herself into the hospital’s A&E ward, after prescribed antibiotics did nothing to reduce the “severe inflammation.”
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The tattoo enthusiast was given medication through a drip for three days, before having a biopsy performed on her problematic eyeball the following day. Anaya claims her seven-year-old daughter India was never “on board” with the unusual tattoo, as she feared her mum would “go blind”.
This may now be a reality for Anaya, as she claims her sight is deteriorating. She said: “I was just going to get one [eye tattoo] at first because I thought 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 [the tattoo] asking, ‘what if you go blind?’ She wasn’t on board with it at all.
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“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 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. 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 s**t again, with the eye tattoo. I’m definitely not doing that s**t again.”
Although Anaya left the hospital ‘on the mend’, the ordeal has left her regretting her choice to follow in the footsteps of alternative Australian Amber. She has been told by ophthalmologists that she is now at a very high risk of contracting glaucoma, and her eyesight is already worsening.
She claims her vision is now clouded by “hundreds of thousands of floaters.” Anaya says she is being supported by her university and is being provided with applications to make reading easier, as well as counselling.
Anaya still maintains a positive mindset, and claims the negative comments she receives online regarding her appearance are just par for the course. She 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.
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“I can’t get these eye tattoos out. I’m always going to have this problem. So, I basically think 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 tell my daughter not to care about the opinions of someone else because they’re just ordinary people like you. You have positive comments and negative comments, but the negative comments always overshadow the positive ones.”
Amber Luke said: “I would highly recommend and suggest 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.”
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