This Reality TV Star Temporarily Lost Her Sight Trying a TikTok Beauty Hack

Photo credit: Tilly Whitfield / Instagram
Photo credit: Tilly Whitfield / Instagram
  • Big Brother star Tilly Whitfeld opened up about a TikTok beauty hack gone wrong in a recent Instagram post.

  • The Australian reality TV personality shared graphic photos of severe scarring and burns on her cheeks.

  • Whitfield tried to tattoo freckles on her cheeks with sewing needles and ended up with an infection and temporarily lost her sight in one eye.


Australian reality TV star Tilly Whitfield is opening up about the aftermath of a TikTok beauty hack gone very wrong. She landed in the hospital with severe scarring on her face after attempting to give herself freckles.

The Big Brother Australia contestant detailed her ordeal on Instagram alongside selfies showing her makeup-free cheeks. “For those asking why I have my blue clay face mask on continuously through out the show, this is what my face looked like a week prior to entering the house, hence why I always have makeup on and my skin is always covered,” Tilly explained in the caption. “This is the result of attempting to remove scarring I inflicted on myself trying to replicate an at home beauty procedure I saw on a TikTok video 2 months before big brother 🤣 Who bloody else would manage to do such a thing?”

In the photos, you can see the deep scarring on Tilly’s cheeks. There are even areas where the burns crusted over. “I literally shoved needles deep into my skin this is not a rash lol,” she added. [It is not for the faint of stomach.]

Tilly told the New York Times that she had been scrolling through TikTok last August when she came across a video purporting to teach people how to give themselves temporary freckles using sewing needles and ink. She ordered brown tattoo ink on eBay, which turned out to be fake tattoo ink with high levels of lead, and went to work pricking her face with ink-dipped needles. “It didn’t hurt at all, so I didn’t think I should stop,” she told the publication.

Flash forward to today, and she is $12,000 deep in medical bills, and doctors can’t figure out how to remove the damage. Tilly’s face swelled up from infection, and she briefly lost sight in one eye. Still, she admits: “I’m fortunate enough to not have keloid scarring and the surface of my skin is smooth, the pigmentation is very dark and obvious.”

“Please please don’t try any ‘DIY’ or ‘at home’ beauty procedures. I ended up in hospital with temporary loss of vision in my eye due to swelling and was very sick from the infection, not to mention my face was somewhat unrecognisable,” Tilly continued in her Instagram post. “Leave it to the professionals 🌈🦄✨.”

For the record, there are professional tattoo artists who offer semi-permanent freckling and safe (derm-approved) ways to fake freckles at home with makeup.

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