Catt Gallinger, a 24-year-old Canadian woman, is trying to warn others after getting a “scleral tattoo,” which consists of injecting ink into the white part of the eyeball. She has posted graphic images of her eye leaking purple dye after an attempt to tattoo the white of one eye that went horribly if predictably wrong, and may leave her partially blind.
Serious question: How many people need this warning? How many brain-damaged, lobotomized dementia sufferers need this warning?
Gallinger already has a forked tongue, multiple piercings and many more conventional tattoos, wrote on Facebook that immediately after the tattoo was done on September 5, purple dye began streaming down her face.
Obviously, the tattoo artist wrongly offered a dangerous survice, but even more obviously, only an idiot would ask for it. One does not need extensive research to determine that using a needle to inject ink into one’s EYE is insanely risky and completely unnecessary.
If she loses the sight of that eye, Catt is entirely at fault. She is a perfect poster child for the logical and ethical limits of the nostrum, “Don’t blame the victim.”
Ethics Alarms 
Did she cross her heart and hope to die?
A safer version I heard from a cartoon: “Cross my heart, poke my ribs, see my lips they tell no fibs.”
”How many brain-damaged, lobotomized dementia sufferers need this warning?”
That a trick, or rhetorical, question?
https://www.forbes.com/2011/02/23/dumbest-warning-labels-entrepreneurs-sales-marketing-warning-labels_slide_16.html
A possible solution?
Horrible, but…….what in the world was she thinking? Your eyesight is one of the most precious gifts you’ll ever have. I am just blown away by this.
And what about the tattoo ….. I really hesitate to call her an artist …. person? How in the world can she think this is a reasonable service to offer?
Very cruel, and lacking compassion for the victim! It’s blatantly obvious that the victim has some sort of mental deficiency, derangement. Condemnation of her serves no useful purpose. Would have been sufficient to call attention to this very sad, unfortunate incident bypassing the list of chosen adjectives as well as the concluding judgment on the matter. She is not entirely at fault, her reprehensible chosen “artist” shares some of the responsibility.
I can’t tell whether this is sarcasm or seriousness… If it’s sarcasm, bravo… If not, let me know, and I’ll explain to you why you’re wrong.
”Very cruel, and lacking compassion for the victim!”
You don’t say?
She’s 24 and past the age of consent, even in Canada. Are you saying the she needs to have others, perhaps BIG GUBMINT, making her decisions for her?
Not sure about the situation north of the border, but did you know that aspiring underage tattoo recipients need parental permission (in the good ol’ U. S. of A. leastways) to get inked, if they can get inked at all?
“According to data through March 2015 compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 45 states have laws prohibiting minors from getting tattoos, with the majority of those states allowing it if there’s parental consent. For example, Florida law requires written, notarized consent of a minor’s parent or legal guardian in order to tattoo a minor.”
Aspiring underage abortion recipients?
”According to Guttmacher Institute, a group that tracks abortion policy and statistics, a majority of states require consent and/or notification.
”In 38 states, minors either have to get consent and/or notify their parents, while in 12 states they don’t need either.” (bolds mine)
Nationwide, seems like it’s easier, or at least not as difficult, to get an abortion than it is to get a tattoo.
That’s not at all fucked up, am I right?
Who condemned her? Blaming someone isn’t condemning them. I didn’t say she was bad or evil. She’s a moron. I have compassion for morons. I have compassion for people who are responsible for their own misfortunes. I’m not wishing pain on her. I’m not glad that she may have blinded herself. I just refuse to let her point fingers at anyone.
She could not claim damages from the artist. She would be laughed out of court..The artist didn’t force her to subject herself to this. She consented. She had no less reason to avoid it than I do.
You may not be condemning this intellectually substandard individual, I apologize for my deduction, but the lack of compassion shown (“If she loses the sight of that eye, Catt is entirely at fault”), as well calling her an idiot (at this time), even if true, was insensitive, in view of the tragedy that has just befallen her.
I don’t do sentiment. I do analysis. She is at fault. She is an idiot. Res Ipsa Loquitur.
Nothing at all has “befallen” her, and that is an important point.
This is 100 self-inflicted.
–Dwayne
Comment is not sarcastic; it is my most serious reflection on the article.
If she wanted to do a Halloween thing she could have gotten some red or purple contacts. But no, I think we have a low grade moron here. 🙄
There is absolutely NO evidence that this woman is “substandard”, intellectually or any other way, except for the act, itself. Personally, I blame an educational system that failed to teach her to think well enough to make rational decisions…and the fact that she is a moron.
yes, it’s important not to leave out that last part.
You can’t cure moron. Even some of them eventually learn to be wary of sharp objects especially those impact the eyes.
“Serious question: How many people need this warning?”
I would say a great majority of people don’t need this particular warning because most people probably have never even heard of scleral tattooing let alone considered having it done…so I’m seriously wondering why this was picked up by so many media sources? I didn’t know anything about scleral tattooing but I’m bored…and after looking at the posts written by Gallinger, who is a body modification model with a modest following, scleral tattooing does seem to be a “thing” in the very non-mainstream body modification culture. Also, it seems this “story” started out just as a Facebook thing with Gallinger claiming that she wanted to educate the community (which were her followers in the body modification culture, I’m assuming) about doing their “research” on an artist when one is considering scleral tattooing. In her case, the artist just happened to be her boyfriend (now her ex-boyfriend) who she named as the artist who did not have the appropriate skills to give her a scleral tattoo. She says she was unsure about letting him do the sclera tattoo but he kept pushing it…and kept pushing it…and he DID have a portfolio and they had been together a month so she felt she could trust him so she gave into him. And then THAT happened. She admits that she shouldn’t have trusted him and several people, obviously in
that scene, know her now ex-boyfriend and agree that he is some type of rogue body modifier and others seem to feel she is out to hurt her former boyfriend’s reputation. This can be found in the Facebook comments before the media got involved. The former boyfriend says that he did nothing wrong and her unfortunate condition is not his fault and is a result of her own doing by not following his aftercare instructions. Now, if I wanted to follow this story to the only logical conclusion in which it was presented, I would find out who broke up with who and why. Did Gallinger break up with him or did he break up with her? This information would give me some clue as to whether Gallinger was out to hurt his reputation as punishment for breaking up with her and her or if he truly is a rogue in the field of body modifications and she was so angry about what he did that she dumped him and is now sincere in warning the body modification community about him. THAT is the only story here because I don’t think the real story is to warn society that they need to research their artists when getting a tattoo in the eye. Until the media got involved. The media bypassed the real story because the real story was just gossip among a fringe culture so the media presented Gallinger as a girl presenting herself as a victim and an example of what can happen if you don’t do your eye tattoo research. And Gallinger, not knowing any better, went along with it. Obviously, this victimization is not sitting well with the much, much larger group of people who are now giving Gallinger their opinions of her. I have no idea if Gallinger was a victim in the original intent of her Facebook entries but I think the media’s attempt to make her a victim has actually made her a real victim. Nobody should have to read hundreds of comments which suggest in various ways that the world would be better off without her. Or that she is going to hell. Or that she would be better off dead.
So…real warning here? There are probably several of them. The one that comes to mind the most for me is be careful what you write on Facebook or other types of social media and if you allow the world to have access to that information, anything can happen. And it probably won’t turn out well.
How many people need this information? A lot of people. In fact, I thought it was strange that the people who wrote the most hateful messages to Gallinger… how stupid she was and how she didn’t deserve to live…left their Facebooks open to the public with information which could lead to trouble.
An elementary school teacher, in most cases, should not be sending messages to a person, even Gallinger, telling her she should kill herself because she makes the world more ignorant just by being alive.
Well, yes, THAT sounds a bit extreme. And no need to wish people with such terrible judgment and comprehension of risk/reward ratio dead—they will get there soon enough.
You certainly have devoted more thought to this idiot than she deserves. Body modification obsession is some kind of mental illness, but even a mentally ill person knows that sight is too precious to risk because of “art.” Next: Cardiac and internal organ tattoos.
Why did the media take interest? That’s pretty obvious: the same reason I did. “I have come to warn you not to let someone poke an electric needle in your eye!” is headline-worthy stupid.
Maybe this video might have helped:
I’m waiting for the follow up post on tattooing ethics.