In New Zealand, the Auckland council has made changes to its health and hygiene bylaw to ban eyeball tattooing unless it’s carried out by an ophthalmologist, while adding that all services that pierce or risk breaking or burning tissue (not just the skin) must be licensed from 1 March this year.

Overseas, Washington state has just announced it will become the third US state to ban eyeball tattoos, along with Indiana and Oklahoma, making eyeball tattooing illegal from June with a fine of up to US$10,000.

The moves follow several other jurisdictions which have acted to ban what most consider to be an extremely risky cosmetic procedure over the past few years. Australia’s New South Wales amended its public health act in September 2017 to restrict eyeball tattooing to medical practitioners or other qualified persons, following an outcry after the controversial procedure was effectively, and unintentionally, legalised in February the previous year when an amendment was enacted declaring "eyeball tattooing, tongue piercing and tongue tattooing are skin penetration procedures."

New Zealand’s deputy director of public health, Dr Harriette Carr, said at this stage regulations around eyeball tattoos are for local councils to make. “The health ministry welcomes Auckland Council's initiative to limit eyeball tattooing to registered ophthalmologists and we hope other councils will follow suit. We are currently monitoring this closely.” But at this point, Auckland is the only council to have introduced anything specific regarding eyeball tattooing.

Cutting below the surface of membranes (injecting dye into the whites of the eyes beneath the top layer of the eye), however, was a restricted activity under the Health Practitioners and Competence Assurance Act 2003, said Carr. As such,“the procedure should only be carried out by a registered health practitioner with a relevant scope of practice. Ophthalmologists are the only practitioners likely to be sufficiently skilled to carry out a high risk procedure of this nature.”

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists has already recommended restricting eyeball tattooing to registered ophthalmologists, while in 2017 eye health professionals on both sides of the ditch called for governments to ban the practice.