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Oklahoma Senate panel wants to make tattooing the eyeball illegal
Tattooing the eyeball would be illegal under a bill that passed a Senate committee Thursday.
Senate Bill 844 would make it against the law to tattoo the white of the eye under the bill filed by Sen. Cliff Branan, R-
Oklahoma City. The bill passed out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee with no opposition.
Branan said the bill was filed at the request of the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology.
The practice of tattooing the eyeball is growing. Tattoo artists use a needle to inject pigment into the white of an eyeball. The end result is a colored eyeball. The pupil of the eye remains unchanged.
Dr. Scott Guess, an ophthalmologist at the Dean A. McGee eye center, said the practice is dangerous and could cause blindness.
The area where the pigment is injected is only about a millimeter thick, and the needle could puncture vital areas.
"This is a trend that’s growing and moving toward our borders, and we want to stop it,” Branan said.
The bill now goes before the full Senate.
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Political Policy,
Politics,
Eyesight and Eye Health,
Tattooing and Body Modification,
Health Care Policy,
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