Because neither Pauly or Josh was experiencing pain from their procedure, but I was having pain when focusing on objects close to me, at Howie‘s insistence I went in to see an ophthalmologist this morning to make sure there wasn’t a problem (wow do I appreciate universal healthcare!).

First I should say that the two doctors and various nurses treated me with respect the whole time and never hassled me about doing it. The first nurse and doctor checked out my eyes in general, giving me acuity tests and a general look-over, all of which was perfectly normal, although they still referred me to a specialist to be sure.

The specialist — who incidentally had just written a paper on corneal tattooing and was able to give me tons of information and some leads on doctors who might be cooperative in completing the process — confirmed that the damage to the surface of the eye was minor and should heal without complication. He also checked the pressure in each eye since there was a minor worry that the sclera had been compromised. Everything in those tests checked out fine as well.

A number of other tests and tons of closeup examination was done, and everything looks healthy and other than a brief “you really should have this done by a doctor” comment, they were supportive and assured me that I didn’t have anything to worry about (and that it’s safe to do in general terms). The pain that I’m experiencing appears to be related to a minor irritation of the muscle (so when I focus closely, which causes the eyes to pull to centre slightly, it hurts a bit) and I’ve been given a steroid eyedrop to speed that healing, although I was told it wasn’t really needed.

Above is my eye at about seventy-two hours (I’m a shoe-in for roles as a rotten-eye zombie!). Below is Josh‘s eye at about the same. He’s had by far the best results of the three of us at this point I believe, with an absolutely perfectly placed injection it seems.

I’ll be doing a medical follow-up in a week with the doctor, assuming I don’t update before then.

Previous entries:

• Initial eyeball tattooing report
• Josh’s 24-hour follow-up
• BME/Encyclopedia on Eyeball Tattoos