Tattoos have become exceptionally popular over the last several years. While there used to be a big stigma attached to them, more and more people are changing their minds and seeing them in a different light.
Plenty of younger people love getting tattoos as a way of expressing themselves, and even older generations are starting to get in on the action. They're a great way to commemorate people you love, memories you cherish, or designs that represent your personality.
Or maybe you just really want a giant monster on your back. You do you, we're not here to judge.
However, like most things, tattoos carry some inherent risks that can pose serious threats to your health if you're not careful. You need to be mindful of how clean the shop you go to keeps their equipment, how professional your artist is, and keeping it clean afterwards in order to avoid infection, or worse.
Case and point: a woman might lose her vision because of a tattoo she decided to get, and she's warning people about doing the same.
Keep reading to see what happened to her...
Catt Gallinger, a 24-year-old body modification enthusiast from Ottawa, Canada, already has plenty of tattoos in multiple areas. This time, she decided to get one that's definitely much more extreme than most would normally go for; one on her eyeball.
Immediately following the procedure on Sept. 5, 2017, Gallinger took to her Facebook account, saying that purple dye was leaking from her eyeball, and that her eye had already swollen shut.
According to her, her Sclera (eye white) tattoo was done by somebody who wasn't qualified to perform the procedure, and that the after-effects were "caused by undiluted ink, over injection, not enough/smaller injections sights." In a report by Global News, she states that her artist "was unqualified and pushed her to do it until she 'gave in.'"
Gallinger has now been to the hospital multiple times to see eye specialists, as the tattoo has apparently caused a hemorrhage and sclera tearing. She is considering pursuing legal action against the artist who performed the procedure.
Most of all, she warns people not to make the same risky decisions she made. In her post, she states "As it stands I will have to see a specialist and am at risk of being blind if it doesn't get corrected. [...] Just please be cautious who you get your mods from and do your research. I don't want this to happen to anyone else."
Please be careful whenever you opt to get a tattoo.