People are always stunned when they see my pierced eye – then I tell them what’s really going on
A WOMAN has told how people are always shocked when they see her pierced eye – but not all is as it seems.
The woman named Bree has several piercings all over her face, but there’s one that gets people talking more than others.
In the clip shared to TikTok (@apocalypticautopsy), the 28-year-old, from Minnesota, can be seen with her piercing green eyes wide open, showing off the metal bar that sits either side of her pupil.
Many people were quick to jump to conclusions, with one writing: “wtf piercing eyes.”
Another noted: “It looks cool but hella painful.”
However, they obviously failed to read the caption which reveals all.
The stay-at-home mum, who is trying to spread awareness for ocular melanoma, penned: “It’s a prosthetic eye made by @Christina_Oculara the most incredible ocularist.
“I can’t feel it when I blink, and no I can’t see out of it.”
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The video has since gone viral, racking up over xx views and several comments from social media users.
“Wait that actually looks so cool,” wrote one.
A second asked: “HOW DO YOU BLINK?”
A third penned: “This is so cool! People should have fun customising their prosthetics!”
Meanwhile, a fourth wrote: “I know it’s a prosthetic but it looks painful!”
Another admitted: “I was so concerned until I read the caption.”
A further added: “It looked real for a second. Amazing!”
And one more chimed in: “It looked so real!”
In a second video, Bree explained exactly how she came to lose one eye.
“While I was pregnant with my second child in 2020, I wasn’t having any pain, I wasn’t having any vision problems, but I had gone into my local eye doctor for regular checkup,” she explains.
“He had noticed an enlarged blood vessel on the corner of my left eye.”
She goes on to say how he proceeded with basic tests and took lots of pictures to send to his specialist.
What is ocular melanoma?
Ocular melanoma is the most common type of eye cancer and begins in melanocytes in the eyes.
It can develop anywhere in the eye, but usually develops in the eyeball’s middle layer (uvea), which is below the white layer of the eye (sclera) and contains the iris (colored part of your eye).”
Symptoms
There may not be any symptoms at first but when they do develop, they can seem similar to those of other serious conditions.
You should see your doctor or an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) if you experience any of the following symptoms:
“Change in the shape or size of the pupil (dark circle in the middle of the iris), changes in the eyeball’s position or movements within the socket, eyes that bulge, growing, dark spot on the iris, sensation of flashing lights or “floaters” (small spots) in your field of vision, vision problems, such as blurry vision or losing part of your field of vision.”
Source: pennmedicine
However, when the results came back, it was ocular melanoma,
which is a rare cancer that forms in the cells that produce pigment.
“It occurs in only 5 out of one million people, but is also the most common type of eye cancer,” Bree explains.
“After giving birth, I had tests done that couldn’t be done while I was pregnant, and then we discussed my options.”
While there were three options, Bree says there were only two available to her due to the size of the tumour.
“The two that I had a choice between were removing the eye or gamma knife,” she explains.
Bree says she opted for gamma knife in the hope it’d save her eye
and her vision.
“It’s a technology that allows doctors to use many small gamma rays to deliver a precise dose of radiation to the target area with little affect on the surrounding tissue,” she explains.
However, despite recovering well and getting her vision back, with the cancer looking to have died, around a year after she says a growth appeared where the enlarged blood vessel had been.
“My doctor reminds me that the gamma knife can only be done once, otherwise it will fry the optic nerve,” she explains.
“My only option left was removal of the eye so that the cancer wouldn’t spread to my liver…the doctors told me if I do nothing, life expectancy was about one year, and they urged me to have the eye removed.”