Simon Jones: Parlour talk

As someone with only a passing interest in tattoos, I can still appreciate the artform and I don’t think I would be harming any future job prospects by revealing that I have one. Even the extreme examples of tattooing ink culture are OK with me – a person’s body is their own and they are free to do as they wish. But there does need to be a limit, and that limit needs to be tattooing the sclera.

I called the guy who did my simple tattoo and just casually asked if he offered eyeball tattooing. He didn’t and to his credit, he said it was a ‘dodgy’ procedure and advised against it. On telephoning a few more local tattoo parlours – and remember that Optician’s offices are near uber trendy Brixton – I was greeted with the same type of discouragement. So far so good.