Woman Gets Platinum Jewel Implanted in Her Eye For $3,000

An eye jewelry process that is popular in Europe and L.A. is now being done for the first time in New York City, at Park Avenue Laser Vision — which inserts small platinum hearts and other shapes into people’s eyes in a method called safesight jewelry. The procedure, which has not been approved by the FDA, is about $3,000.

Lucy Luckayanko is perhaps the only New Yorker to have an eye-stud. She spent $3,000 on a one-minute procedure to have a heart-shaped piece of platinum inserted into the white of her right eyeball.

It seems doctors have done this practice several times in Europe and Los Angeles, but this was New York’s first. To perform it, Dr. Chynn first injected an anesthetic into Lucy’s eye. Then he made a minute incision to “try to divide a pocket in between the sclera (the white part) and the conjunctiva (the clear part)” of her eye. Using forceps, he placed the 3.5mm platinum stud in a drop of water on Lucy’s eye membrane. Since the stud is so small, it had to be floated into position. It was all over in a matter of minutes and Lucy went home with her new bejeweled eye soon after.

This strange cosmetic procedure was invented in 2004 by a Dutch eye surgeon. Dr. Chynn tells us it’s very safe. “It’s a very thin piece of platinum that’s designed for insertion on top of the eye, it’s not in the eye so there’s no risk of blindness or anything at all,” he said. “She could have a little bit of local bleeding. That could go away in a couple of days or couple of weeks. She could have an infection but we’ll avert that with antibiotics.”

Lucy doesn’t seem too bothered with the consequences, however. She’s just actually happy with her “really small, really tiny, really cute” eye-heart. I wonder if she knows that her cute heart isn’t even FDA approved. The American Academy of Ophthalmology is warning consumers about potential dangers. They say there isn’t “sufficient evidence to support the safety or therapeutic value of this procedure,” and that people should “avoid placing in the eye any foreign body or material that is not approved by the FDA.

A few days after the procedure, Lucy said she did not have any problems or pain with her new accessory. “50 percent of my friends are like: ‘What is it? Why do you need it oh my god are you crazy?’ But 50 percent of my friends are like: ‘Oh my god, its super cool.’” She could even swap it with something else when she gets bored of the heart. Each swap costs $1,000. Lucy thinks her eye is now going to be a “conversation maker.” I find this bizarre; if I wanted to make conversation, I’d just stick to a comment on the weather. But perceptibly Lucy wants more. She wants her eye to be her “unique factor.”