There are many forms of body modification, from tattoos to piercings to plastic surgery. There’s even a body mod trend making people cringe: eyeball piercings.

A handful of people have had tiny platinum jewelry implanted into their eyes. But is this a trend that will catch on?

The Doctor Behind the Trend

Dr. Emil Chynn performed the first eyeball jewelry implantation surgery in the United States in 2013. He had been looking for the perfect candidate for the SafeSight Eye Jewelry surgery for some time. He found that in Lucy Luckayanko. “She’s Russian,” he said, “She’s over the top.” (1)

Dr. Chynn, who is an eye surgeon, performed the surgery on Park Avenue in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. He wanted people to be able to watch from the street, and he allowed local news to film. Chynn said that he wanted people to see the surgery so the trend would catch on after they saw how safe it was. Originally, he hoped that a celebrity would want the surgery. He planned to broadcast it on live television to draw attention to the operation. (2)

For Luckayanko’s surgery, Chynn used small scissors to cut a slit in the thin membrane covering the white of her eye. He then slipped the small platinum heart into the slit. The slit was small enough that it didn’t require stitches. The procedure lasted for only five minutes, and Luckyanko’s eye took three days to heal. (1, 2)

Chynn said that his patients cannot feel the eye jewelry after the incision has healed. According to him, the jewelry is developed to fit the shape of the eye. (2)

Risks and Warnings

Although Chynn says that the procedure is safe, the American Academy of Ophthalmology disagrees. They released a statement warning people to avoid the surgery. They cautioned that complications could include blindness from ocular infection or bleeding, bleeding beneath the conjunctiva, perforation of the eye and conjunctivitis. (3)

But Chynn stands behind his position that the surgery is safe. In an interview, he stated, “Eye jewelry was developed in Holland over a decade ago and has been successfully implanted into hundreds of patients’ eyes in Europe without a single major complication or adverse event.” (2)

The Future of Eyeball Piercings

Since Luckayanko’s surgery, very few people have opted to undergo the procedure. In 2018, Chynn performed the surgery on another patient named Skyler. She decided to have a 3mm by 4mm platinum star implanted into her eye. This time, Chynn filmed himself performing the procedure. (2)

When Luckayanko first underwent the eyeball piercing surgery in 2013, she paid $3,000 to have it done. In 2018, the cost had increased to $5,000. Although it was expensive, Skyler felt that it was worth the cost. (2)

The few people who have had Dr. Chynn’s SafeSight Eye Jewelry surgery also have the option to have it removed. Chynn says that the removal procedure also lasts only five minutes. (2)

Due to the cost and the cringey nature of the procedure, it seems like eyeball piercings won’t be catching on as a huge trend any time soon.