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The risky transformation that led this Australian to fly 16,000 km in front of new eyes
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The risky transformation that led this Australian to fly 16,000 km in front of new eyes

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For most of her life, Samantha Fleck, 41, said she felt misaligned with her dark brown eyes.
“I was about 15, 16 years old. I noticed something was wrong and I felt out of place in my appearance,” Samantha, who lives in Sydney, told The Feed.
So for about twenty years, Samantha wore green-tinted contact lenses every day.

She spent ten years researching a way to permanently change her eye color before discovering kerato pigmentation this year. The procedure, which changes the color of the iris permanently, involves using a laser to deliver a colored dye through a microtunnel in the cornea.

“I always had this idea that I would change my eye color,” she said.
“It has been a lifelong goal and dream of mine to be myself.”
But with keratopigmentation unavailable in Australia due to the risks involved, Samantha traveled to the US and including flights, accommodation and the $18,000 procedure, she spent around $30,000 to have her brown eye color permanently changed.
Forty minutes later, Samantha had jade green eyes, with the outline of her original color still visible, a common result of the procedure.

“All my contact lenses have always been green; people wouldn’t be able to tell this eye color apart from my old contact lenses,” she said.

Samantha Fleck was never comfortable with brown eyes. Source: Delivered

And now, after the procedure, Samantha said she finally feels like herself.

“It has changed my life dramatically and emotionally… It is more than just the aesthetic and social perception of a person… It fulfills that inner calling.”

“Now when I look in the mirror, all I see is myself.”

‘People can go blind’

While LASIK – a laser eye treatment used to improve vision by reshaping the cornea – is used medically, keratopigmentation has gained popularity in recent years as a cosmetic trend fueled by social media.

TikTok and Instagram videos documenting eye color transformations have been viewed millions of times, pushing the procedure into mainstream conversations. But these videos are often littered with comments asking about the costs and risks.

But the procedure remains off the radar in Australia due to the risks associated with it, Chameen Samarawickrama, a Sydney-based ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, told The Feed.
“We do [keratopigmentation] in eyes that are already blind, and because they are blind, the consequences if something goes wrong are not that important,” he said.

“People can go blind, and this is not a reversible procedure.”

People can go blind. And this is not a reversible procedure.

Chameen Samarawickrama, ophthalmologist and eye surgeon

Samarawickrama said permanent dyes applied to the eyes are one of the biggest concerns because of their unknown long-term effects.

“We don’t know if [the dye] is toxic in the long term, we don’t know if it will fade, if scarring will occur. The cornea is responsible for 70 to 80 percent of focusing. So any irregularity that may be caused by the dye will cause vision loss.”

A man in a gray suit sitting in an office chair in an ophthalmology clinic room

Sydney professor Chameen Samarawickrama is warning Australians to reconsider going abroad to have their eye color changed. Source: SBS / Matt Gazie

A 2018 study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology suggested a 10-12 percent risk of complications, according to Samarawickrama.

‘For what we do: 10 percent [risk] is ten times more than what we would normally expect,” he said.
“This is a high-risk procedure.”
But Samantha weighed it up and decided the procedure was worth the risk.

“I did as much research as I could and looking at the results of people who did it before me, there are people who did the procedure two, three or four years before me and they always updated their process, and it put my mind at ease.”

A growing global trend

Since 2019, New York ophthalmologist Dr. Alexander Movshovich has been performing keratopigmentation, with Samantha being one of his former patients.
‘I see a lot of happy people because [they suddenly] in 20 minutes other people become.”
He estimates he has performed around 1,500 procedures at his clinic in that time – but new players in the US and countries like Türkiye are now offering the procedure at a cheaper rate.
Ophthalmologists Francis Ferrari and Jorge Alió first performed keratopigmentation in France in 2013, where the technique was shown to other ophthalmologists.

“I actually saw this procedure [Ferrari’s] hands and then I brought it to America, and I was the first in America,” Movshovich said.

A woman with green eyes and a black sweater hugs a man dressed in a blue suit and a beard.

Samantha Fleck hugs Doctor Alex Movshovich after her procedure in New York. Source: Delivered

He said most people go from dark eyes to green or blue – with about 10 percent of patients requesting further work after the procedure.

“‘I want to be more, I want to be less’… some people are hungry for change. There are people who just want to do it more and more,” he said.
Movshovich said the procedure has not produced any serious complications in his US clinic over the past six years, but short-term side effects include light sensitivity, redness in the eyes and discomfort (which can sometimes turn into long-term complications).
Dr. Chandra Bala, another ophthalmologist based in Sydney, has said he has seen Australians showing interest in changing their eye color, but warned against keratopigmentation.
“People always strive for that crystal clear eye. But our job is not to do harm first. If you’re going to do this, you have no idea what’s going to happen,” Bala told The Feed.

He says the results often look unnatural or “aesthetically displeasing.”

“The texture you get from it is not of the refinement of the normal eye. So you look ‘ghostly’…”
Bala saw firsthand how things can go wrong after dealing with a health professional who had undergone kerato pigmentation to change the color of his eyes.

“He looked ghostly… he now has depression and all kinds of problems,” Bala said.

‘Just put on contact lenses’

Samarawickrama said cosmetic keratopigmentation remains outside of mainstream ophthalmology in terms of research and use, meaning it is unregulated and understudied.
“People strive for a concept of perfection that doesn’t exist. If the procedure goes wrong, the result is blindness – and that is irreversible,” he said.

“If someone really wants a light tan, they should just put on a contact lens.”

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