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This Surgery Permanently Changes a Person’s Eye Color

It’s called cosmetic keratopigmentation, and it’s causing quite a controversy.

12 min readJun 2, 2025
Photo by Dylan Michaud on Unsplash

My dad had brown eyes, and my mom has blue eyes, but I have green eyes that I’ve received compliments on for as long as I can remember. Not just people I’ve met, but strangers on the street will stop to comment on the color of my eyes.

I typically respond with “thanks, I grew them myself,” since, unlike our fitness level or fashion choices, our eye color remains largely unchanged throughout our lives, and we have no control over which color we’re born with.

However, that may no longer be the case. Now there’s a relatively new surgery that, for a few thousand dollars, will permanently alter a person’s eye color — and it’s growing in popularity worldwide.

How Eye Color Forms

Let’s discuss our natural eye colors before I tell you about the surgery. When we talk about the color of someone’s eyes, we’re referring to the color of their irises. Each eye has an iris, a two-layered ring of muscle tissue that surrounds the pupil and helps control the amount of light that enters our eyes.

The color of our irises depends on several factors, including genetics, but the main element that determines…

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Katrina Paulson
Katrina Paulson

Written by Katrina Paulson

I write about recent discoveries that have the power to shift our perspectives. Check it out! --> https://curiousadventure.substack.com

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