Man who spent over $50,000 on tattoos details what happens while having his eyeballs inked
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: ITV
A man shared what it was like to have tattoos done directly onto his eyeballs.
Tattoos have become increasingly popular in recent decades, with many people now opting to have some ink as stigma becomes less prominent in countries around the world.
Some people might opt for something more subtle, like a small ankle tat, or something like an arm design which is larger but easier to cover with clothing if you need to.
Others might take things further with full sleeves and even face tattoos.
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However, as with many things there are inevitably some people who take things to a complete extreme, and among them is the man formerly known as Mathew Whelan, who would go on to change his name to reflect his obsession with getting more and more ink all over his body.
Now, he goes by 'King of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-ite', though clarified that he usually goes by 'Body Art' in the day to day as 'it's a lot shorter'.
Body Art has spent more than £40,000 ($52,000) and 1,600 hours being tattooed, claiming that at one point he had 32 artists working on him at the same time.
Tattoos cover his body, including his entire face barely having a square-inch of skin left un-inked aside from immediately around his eyes, on his lips, and on his ears.
He revealed that he actually got his first tattoo before it was even legal for him to do so.
"The very first seconds of breaking the skin, I knew in my head at the age of nine I wanted artwork on my body, probably not to the extent that I'm covered," he told This Morning. "I was actually 16, two years to the legal age of being tattooed."
He added: "I'm still the same person, just older, and more colorful."
But there was one location which was extreme even for the most dedicated fans of tattoos.
This was having a tattoo done on his actual eyeballs to darken the area around his iris and pupil.
"It's with a syringe, and they pierce the muscle tissue in the eyeball," he said. "Your optical nerve is not in the eyeball, so it's not painful, just dangerous."
And he said there was no anesthetic while having it done, adding: "You've got to be a statue or a gargoyle and not twitch, because it can be different, between losing your sight."
Explaining why he had it done, Body Art said: "One of my favorite animals is an orangutan, and if you know monkeys and orangutan their eyes are black."
He added: "It's become a lifestyle for me, not an addiction."
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists has warned of the potential risks of eyeball tattooing for cosmetic purposes, calling it 'an extremely dangerous, irreversible procedure that can lead to blindness'. Among the risks listed are: retinal detachment, light sensitivity, adverse reactions and perforation of the eye.