Scleral tattooing including blindness, of the procedure and warns that it should not be performed without a professional. Scleral tattooing is still a new body modification, and potential longterm effects have therefore still not manifested themselves. In 2009 the Oklahoma Senate passed Senate Bill 844, filed by Oklahoma Senator Cliff Branan and supported by the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology, to make it illegal to tattoo the sclera of the eye. Scleral tattooing Scleral tattooing is the practice of tattooing the sclera, or white part of the human eye. The dye is not injected into the tissue, but between two layers of the
Sclera maintains the shape of the globe, offering resistance to internal and external forces, and provides an attachment for the extraocular muscle insertions. The sclera is perforated by many nerves and vessels passing through the posterior scleral foramen, the hole that is formed by the optic nerve. At the optic disc the outer two-thirds of the sclera continues with the dura mater (outer coat of the brain) via the dural sheath of the optic nerve. The inner third joins with some choroidal tissue to form a plate (lamina cribrosa) across the optic nerve with perforations through which the optic fibers (fasciculi)