Convicted Criminal's Eyeball tattoo causes a stir in court (Photo)

The sentencing of a convicted criminal with an eyeball tattoo in an Alaskan court has drawn attention to an unusual form of facial decoration

Jason Barnum, 39, who pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a policeman, has the white of his right eye has  tattooed jet black.

Arguing for the prosecution, Anchorage Police Department Chief Mark Mew urged the judge to take a look at Barnum's face which, he said, showed the convicted criminal had "decided a long time ago that his life was about being hostile to people".

The technique, which he has modified over the years, involves injecting pigment directly into the eyeball so it rests under the eye's thin top layer, or conjunctiva.

A single small injection has enough ink to cover about a quarter of the eye. It takes several injections to completely cover the sclera, which is then coloured for life.

 Kylie Garth, a body piercer who works in Luna Cobra's Sydney studio, decided to change the colour of her eyeballs,

"It was mentally intense," she says of the several injections needed to colour her eyeballs a delicate blue-green, a colour she refers to as sea foam.
"It feels like somebody is poking at your eye, then it feels like strange pressure and then it feels you have a bit of sand in your eye, but there's no pain."

Culled from BBC