In ArcGIS for Server 10.2.2, publishing an image service fails when the Description field in the Item Description (Service Editor) contains a string starts with brackets ([]).
The issue is not reproducible in newer versions (10.3/10.3.1) and latest development version 10.4. Suggest to upgrade to a newer version as you can take advantage of other new features too, or use alternative service description to workaround the issue.