TikTok Nightmare Raises Concerns Of Eye Color-Changing Surgery

Remember that one girl who showed up with Miley Cyrus blue eyes in the middle of the 10th grade and expected everyone to act like it was normal? Yes, me too, and fondly even. Even though color contacts have finally (thankfully) fallen out of fashion outside of fashion, humans’ silly willy little desire to alter their genetic makeup has not. That’s why surgically changing your eye color has quickly gained steam among the fashion-forward brave souls who are willing to subject their one and only eyeballs to an invasive beauty procedure.

I swear, every day I log onto TikTok a new fear is unlocked, and today’s happens to be selecting a brown eye tattoo color and having it somehow come out zombie-green. That’s exactly what happened to a TikTok user sharing her eye-color change surgery journey, and (unsurprisingly) the comments had several questions that piqued my interest. Namely, how does eye color change surgery work? Pick up your internet scientist degree and meet me below to discuss.

How does Keratopigmentation (KTP) eye color change surgery work?

Keratopigmentation, or corneal tattooing, is a medical procedure to treat cornea defects. Since its adaption for cosmetic purposes, this procedure has multiple application styles, such as a permanent mineral-based pigment injected with a needle into the cornea. Alternatively, patients desperate for hazel eyes Kelly Clarkson would sing about can get iris implants, like the BrightOcular implants Tiny flew to Tunisia to receive. In 2024, the trend has become far less niche, with TikTok beauty gurus sharing their eye-color transformation with dumbfounded scrollers who can’t look away (me).

Are there risks to eye color-changing surgery?

Like any surgery, there are risks to KTP or corneal implants. KTP surgical experts advise that there is a two to three-month period of inflammation after the dye is tattooed. Patients have reported some blurriness during the adjustment period. The National Library of Medicine also flags that KTP methods can cause pain, “corneal erosion,” “corneal perforation,” and a negative impact on eye tissue growth. On top of that, some patients are unhappy with their eye color, how it fades, or how it distributes across their pupil depending on how the pigment took to their stroma (the thickest layer of the cornea just underneath the surface).

TikTok user Jasmine Hill expressed complete shock at how the eye color pigment “marron” she chose came out as an icy gray-green instead of the brown she expected. The always-forgiving comment section pointed out that marron (the French word for brown) is not the same color as maroon, which is how Jasmine pronounces the word despite the spelling. In a follow-up video, Jasmine showed a swatch of the eye color she selected to prove she did choose a shade of brown despite her eyes coming out a startling shade of something found in the ocean.

Currently, the American Academy of Ophthalmologists warns against KTP and iris implants. The AAO and these eye-color-changing procedures can cause “serious risks” regarding vision complications and overall eye health. Research by the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom pointed out rare instances of KTP causing a parasitic disease in the eye and brain — yikes!

Even though leading doctors in the KTP field told Allure that only 7% of their patients have come back for a color adjustment and the procedure comes with the same amount of risk as Lasik surgery, the AAO insists the risk of reduced vision or blindness, glaucoma, cataracts, and inflammation is only worth it for patients who are born with missing irises in the first place.