Eyelid Tattooing Experience - 4/16/2002

Tattooing my eyelids hadn't really been a priority for me - or even something I had given a lot of thought to - until the rest of my face began to come together and I was constantly looking at a kind of reverse raccoon effect with the empty areas around my eyes. I knew that it was possible to tattoo the eyelids; I had plenty of pictures of tattooed eyelids and had read about various designs as well as cosmetic tattooing applications. Along the way I had heard various stories about things like spoons under the eyelids or toothpicks in the eye sockets to stretch out the skin but these had all the hallmarks of urban legends. To the best of my research I found that eyelid tattooing was done essentially the same as any other tattoo work but with added concern given to the risks posed by working so close to the eyes. I also discovered that by most accounts it was far better to have this done by a tattoo artist than by the cosmetic specialists who often used a pen like device and received a very minimal amount of training. However, I had some difficulty finding a tattoo artist who was confident performing the work and that I felt confident about as well.

My first lead after some inquiry was Julie Moon. I spoke with a few people who had gotten cosmetic work done by Julie and even got to see some of it firsthand. The main stumbling block with having Julie do the work was primarily one of timing and expense. Julie's work does not come cheap and I would have to make time for and take a special trip out to have it done. I filed her away as a backup plan and continued to look closer to myself, asking friends who owned or worked at shops and/or were tattoo artists themselves. Ultimately, the lead that panned out for me came from an off hand remark in conversation. Meghan and I were going out the movies with a friend of hers (Shani) and the subject of my eyelids came up to which Shani mentioned 'Jessica does that.' Referring to an artist at Forbidden Fruit. I made a mental note of it and within a week or two decided to go down to Forbidden Fruit and ask around a bit.

In early March I went down to Forbidden Fruit on Sixth Street and asked about the possibility of one the artists having done some eyelid work previously. The counter girl told me that would be Jessica and that she would be in the next day if I wanted to come in and talk with her. I left my name and number in case I couldn't get back or missed her and then talked a bit with Bear who I noticed was having his lunch in the back. The next day, Meghan and I went down to the shop and I met and talked with Jessica about what she had done before and what I wanted done with my eyelids. Jessica hadn't done an entire eye before but she was willing try with the understanding that I should expect that it may take a couple sessions to get it in solid since it was not unusual for this type of tattooing to 'fall out' more so than others. She would do it for $200 and expected it to take around 3 hours. I told her I would be back later in the month to schedule an appointment since I would be leaving to go to New York and perform in the middle of the month.

By the time I got back from doing my show in New York I was itching to have my eyelids tattooed. I went back to Forbidden Fruit during Jessica's hours and caught her as she was finishing up a piece. We agreed upon Friday, April 5th at 3:30pm for the initial session. It would be the cap to a week of tattooing since I would travel to Dallas earlier in the week to have my scalp tattooed by Mike Tidwell at Obscurities / Trilogy.

I arrived at Forbidden Fruit a little bit early for my 3:30pm appointment. When I walked in, Bear was there working on his PDA and Jessica was working on a drawing. Jessica finished up her drawing and began to set up her work area while Bear went through the paperwork with me and rung me up. Within a few minutes Jessica was ready for me and we got to work.

We began with the right eye. I lay down on a massage table; Jessica applied the topical anesthetic cream and then put on a plastic covering. The cream was allowed to sit for approximately 20 minutes before being carefully removed. Jessica then cleaned area and flushed my eyes first with water and then with saline. Eye drops were then placed in my eye and I rolled my eyes and blinked repeatedly so as to coat the eye itself with the drops. The eye drops were a formula meant to form something of a barrier on my eyes and protect them from scratching and any ink particles that might accidentally get into the eye. Now we were ready to begin with the actual tattooing.

I had never used an anesthetic for tattooing before but I did notice the difference, especially around the edges of the area where I had previously been tattooed. The vibration was just as strong as before but the sting was noticeably dulled - although not altogether gone. The vibration was particular intense along the eyelashes and near the corners of the eyes. At one point I commented on the sensation being the tattooing equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. The majority of the work was done with a magnum shader but there were some tight areas that required a liner, as well as right along the edge of the lids. Frequently, during the process Jessica would stop and flush the eye with water and saline. Even so, the process went fairly quickly. Including setup time and waiting for the topical to 'set in' it was only about an hour and a half before the first eye was done.

Before continuing with the left eye we took a short break so that I could feed the parking meter. When I got back to shop, it was back on the table and the process was repeated. This time, however, Jessica opted to only use the topical anesthetic on a portion of the area at a time. Instead of applying it the entire area all once, she first applied it to the upper lid and then applied it to the lower lid allowing it to set there while working on the already numbed upper lid. This meant the effect of the anesthetic 'held' a bit better over the course of the procedure. Other than this, the left eye went very much like the right eye had and was soon completed. From walking in the door to the finished product took about three hours in all.

Jessica had warned me about possibly not being able to or wanting to drive afterwards but although my eyes were noticeably swollen I felt fine and my vision was essentially unaffected. Just in case though, Meghan had come to shop - arriving just after we started on the first eye, taking photos and shooting video throughout (submitted to BME and also online at www.thelizardman.com) - and would have been able to get me home if needed. Before leaving we discussed aftercare, which amounted mainly to their standard shop aftercare with the common sense addition of being careful about using any creams, lotions. ointments, or the like near the eyes. Of course, being that I already have over five hundred hours of tattooing I have hit upon my own preferred methods for healing fresh tattoos. Basically, I leave them the hell alone. Simple cleaning and pat dry once or twice a day - usually in my daily shower and that's about it. I mentioned the to Jessica and she didn't see any problem with it, being that this method had proven itself for me already.

The healing process was fairly standard and nothing unexpected occurred. I did find it highly bothersome to not rub my eyes, but otherwise it was no worse than any other tattoo I have had in the past. Almost two weeks from the time it was done the tattoo has already gone through its 'flaking' period and the color has held far better than expected. There are a couple of spots that we will likely touch up and Jessica is interested in possibly adding some highlights but if I were to have to keep what I have today I would be quite pleased.

See the procedural photos here.