Corneal Tattooing

A world-leading innovation

Changing eye color

A world-leading innovation

Changing eye color

World's premiere pigmentation of the cornea

Corneal tattooing or keratopigmentation, on a blind or sighted eye, is used to repair a defect in the iris.
This technique has the advantage of simplicity compared to iris sutures, rings or prostheses. Indeed, one remains superficial by depositing pigment in a ring cut like a book leaf in the cornea. The surgery doesn’t even require stitches.
This technique is also used for purely aesthetic purposes to change eye colour.

Restorative corneal tattooing

The keratopigmentation technique provides both aesthetic (iris colour) and functional (the tattoo’s opacity to light) correction. This technique is quite old, as attested by Indian publications dating from 1950. Colouring using a tattooing technique was updated for the modern day by VAN DER VELDEN, particularly for the cornea. Although the first indications involved the aesthetic treatment of corneal opacity (leukoma), the treatment is now used on the irises of seeing eyes.

There are undeniable advantages:
- A non-puncturing corneal overleaf incision (superficial, in relation to the iris).
- Manual (crescent knife or spreader) or femtosecond laser dissection. Simple placement of pigment in tunnel.
- The paste-like consistency of the pigment prevents the need for corneal stitches.
- The colour and opaqueness of the pigment enables both visual functional issues (product is opaque to light) and the aesthetic appearance of the iris to be corrected at once.
- Recovery is simple with nearly no side effects.

Safely changing eye colour

Aesthetic corneal tattooing was developed on the basis of experience with the restorative keratopigmentation of iris defects.
Thanks to the aesthetic quality of restorative iris corrections using this technique, and spurred by the absence of complications, keratopigmentation has become a purely aesthetic technique used to change eye colour. The good coverage of the underlying iris, the quality and naturalness of the BioChromaEyes® colours, and the partial reversibility of the procedure, have enabled this restorative technique to be used for aesthetic purposes.