Black Eyes in Brazil

Rafael Leão Dias of the full-spectrum bodmod studio Dhar-Shan Body Art in Jundiaí tells me that he’s the first Brazilian artist to offer eyeball tattooing, having recently done a few of them, including the one pictured here. As I’ve written elsewhere, it makes me equal parts happy and nervous seeing the multitude of artists (both experienced artists like Rafael, and those with virtually no experience at all) that have decided that they don’t need to wait for others to finish developing the safety aspect of this procedure and are forging ahead reinventing the wheel on eyeball tattoos. I just love the way eyeball tattoos look — not much can compare to it, both for its visual effect and it’s political impact as it’s the only mod where there’s absolutely no going back (other than amputation) — but the speed at which it’s exploding has also meant that there are a lot more people with stained eyes, lumpy eyes, and so on, than there perhaps need to be.

But like I said, this procedure is so exciting that the more you tell people to wait, the more they are raring to get it done TODAY… And I can’t really fault someone for this, because like I also said, it’s that forging ahead that’s always made this community really exciting and fun for me. I just really hope this procedure stays as safe as believe it is and we don’t have an “oh no, what have we done” nightmare moment. Click to see this picture bigger.