To have the desired look, Tien, 29 years old, spent nearly 300 million VND in France to have his cornea tattooed, changing his eyes from dark brown to blue.
Since childhood, Huynh Vu Tien, CEO of a chain of coffee shops, has always cherished the dream of owning blue eyes. Every time he watches movies and looks at European actors, Tien wishes “if only I had that eye color”.
The dream stuck with Tien until adulthood. He likes to wear colored contact lenses, but cannot maintain them for long because of his sensitive eyes.
“I don’t want to have blue eyes to look like ‘Western’ people, but think that if Vietnamese people have this eye color, they will also be very beautiful,” Tien said, adding that this opinion is further reinforced when surfing the videos above. TikTok has Asian people with blue eyes (due to illness or eye color change).
The boy born in 1995 learned about methods to change eye color through groups on social networks. In the end, Tien chose Keratopigmentation, a method that was introduced as “effective, less invasive”, but could only be performed abroad for 9,890 euros (about 270 million VND).
Tien’s eye color is dark brown before surgery. Image: Character provided
At the end of May, the discussion and eye health checks were completed. Tien deposited money, scheduled an appointment and started applying for a visa to make his dream come true. Two months later, he was in Nice, France.
Emotions of fear and excitement mixed together. At the age of 29, Tien said this was the most reckless decision of his life. “I’m very afraid of pain, but when I tried asking people who had done it, they all said there was no pain and no complications, so I felt reassured,” he said, adding that each beauty method comes with risks. , I clearly understand that, but am willing to change.
After passing a series of vision tests, that same afternoon, Tien was taken into the operating room. Initially, the boy was given a pupil-relaxing solution and anesthetized. Doctors use lasers to create small corneal tunnels, then insert bioink into the corneal stroma. After 30 minutes, the eye color change is complete.
After 6-8 months of consultation, his eye color will be a little darker than the original. At this time, color retouching can be done at half the cost of the first time, but this is not a mandatory requirement, depending on the customer’s level of satisfaction with the eye color.
The first night after surgery, Tien had difficulty sleeping because of constant tears due to difficult-to-control tear ducts. However, the next day, his eyes gradually stabilized, he was only sensitive to light, and had to wear sunglasses. Tien also took advantage of this time to rest and travel to more countries.
Tien’s eyesight improved about a month after surgery. Currently, he still abstains from vigorous exercise, limits spicy and hot foods, does not go swimming and avoids eye contact with rainwater or computer screens. At the same time, he drops artificial tears to improve dryness and speed recovery.
Despite the inconvenience in daily life, every time he looks at his new appearance in the mirror, the young man feels that these trade-offs are completely worth it.
“I’m satisfied with my decision to change my eye color. Everyone around me compliments my beautiful, attractive eye color,” Tien said. The boy shared that in the future, if there is a technology to change eye color more beautifully and safely, he will continue to do it to improve his appearance.
Tien said he is satisfied with his current blue eye color. Image: Character provided
Keratopigmentation is understood as a method of corneal tattooing, also known as eye tattooing. This is a technique that uses tattoo ink to treat problems related to the cornea such as scars or iris defects due to injury or congenital conditions. This technique aims to improve the aesthetics and function of the cornea. However, the procedure and results depend on each patient’s specific condition.
MSc Lam Minh Vinh, Head of the Cornea Department, Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital, said Keratopigmentation is often applied to cosmetic cases with eyes with opaque white corneal scars or following the trend when the cornea is still transparent. Normal. Optical cases due to partial or complete iris defects due to injury or birth (iris deficiency) or non-pigmented iris in albinism (glare when exposed to sunlight) are also treated. by Keratopigmentation.
However, according to Dr. Vinh, this method has potential risks of complications. Patients may develop infection or sterile parenchymal inflammation, causing corneal scarring and permanent loss of vision. “In many cases, surgery is difficult if there is cataract or retinal peripheral examination due to obscuration,” Mr. Vinh said.
Doctors believe that the safest and cheapest way to change eye color today is to wear cosmetic contact lenses. Although this method still has the risk of inflammation and infection, the rate is very low and can be easily removed and installed when needed. Everyone should be consulted and examined by an eye specialist before performing any interventional procedure.