When you were in high school, you probably doodled eyes on your notebooks in the margins, right? Imagine now that instead of doodling those eyes, you are actually doodling on those eyes with a tattoo machine.
So, with needles, it’s a real thing! Photos from the Venezuelan Tattoo Convention of patrons and guests with partially or wholly tattooed eyes have been circulating around the Internet.
It makes sense as to why: it is easily one of the most interesting, surreal, and disconcerting modifications to see on another human being. Check it out on Carlos Dehaquiz:
“Whoa,” right?
(Related: 22 Annoying Things You’ll Only Understand If You Have Piercings)
Eye tattooing is not a super new concept; in fact, it’s been around for approximately 2000 years in various capacities. Besides being a cosmetic procedure, as seen above, it can actually be a process that alters an eye that’s been damaged by injury or illness and helps to reconstruct its appearance.
Of course, tattooing one’s eyes black is likely not a reconstruction—though it is also probably not, as the Daily Mail calls it, an effort by enthusiasts to “compete for the most diabolical look.” That said, it is pretty incredible and, again, totally surreal.
Remember Maria Jose Cristerna, AKA the “Vampire Woman of Mexico”? Here she is again, even more, modified than the last time we saw her!
While I personally have a fair amount of tattoos, a scarification piece, several piercings (some retired), and used to have stretched ears, I do not consider myself to be “heavily modified” (though that is an incredibly subjective term and one that I’m sure my grandparents would use for me).
Even where I live in Brooklyn, home of the tattooed hipster, it is rare to see somebody whose modifications could cause them immense stigma and potentially poor treatment.
Some people simply love body modification and want to take it to a level that society might deem extreme. In contrast, others feel they have an idea of what they want to look like and are taking every opportunity to attain it.
No matter the reasoning, it’s impossible to deny that this is all sorts of fascinating. Zombie makeup? Pffft. This goes way beyond that, and it is, therefore, so much more intriguing.