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 other species share, but also to the fact that the human iris is relatively small and comprises a significantly smaller portion of the exposed eye surface compared to other animals. It is theorized that this adaptation evolved because of our social nature as the eye became a useful communication tool in addition to a sensory organ. It is believed that the conspicuous sclera of the human eye makes it easier for one individual to infer where another individual is looking, increasing the efficacy of this particular form of nonverbal communication. Animal researchers have also found that, in the course of