The chief of surgery at Peterborough’s hospital is leading the charge to get the tattooing of eyeballs banned in Ontario.
Dr. Kylen McReelis and colleagues recently spoke at Queen’s Park warning about the physical dangers of eyeball tattoos and the lack of training by tattoo artists at parlours to safely and properly ink the white part of the eye.
WATCH: PRHC’s chief of surgery Dr. Kylen McReelis is lobbying the province to ban the procedure of eyeball tattooing, citing the dangers involved.
He noted Ottawa resident Catt Gallinger who received a tattoo last September. The 24-year-old woman now faces the risk of losing her right eye.
“She had a very unfortunate and unexpected reaction to the tattooing and some of the ink was placed not just on the surface of the eye but actually penetrated the eye and has caused quite significant damage,” said McReelis, an ophthalmologist and former chairman of the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
Gallinger joined the doctors in the push to ban the procedure which is growing in popularity worldwide.
“I don’t recommend anyone getting it done,” she said.
“The creator and I have talked about it and we both agree that this is not something that should be done.”
Mike Andrews, the owner of Mike’s Tattoos in downtown Peterborough, says eye tattoos are too risky to attempt. He advises they should only be done by an experienced artist who has spoken to medical experts about the procedure.
” Try to assess what complications could be avoided, to develop an approach to that that’s safe,” said Andrews.
But Andrews doesn’t agree with a ban on the practice.
“It’s really up to the individual — that’s a risk that you want to take, for whatever risk you want to take, for whatever reason you want to take it,” he said.
The province is looking to update Bill 160 which would ban eyeball tattooing and eye jewelry. The proposed updates have received early all-party support.
“The Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario came to us very concerned about this issue, that that kind of invasive procedure would be done to an individual’s eye in a completely unregulated fashion,” said Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins on Wednesday. “They made the request to the government that we prohibit this procedure unless it’s for medical purposes.”
McReelis says leave all eye work to medical experts.
“The only person who should be performing any injection near your eye should be a physician.”
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