Eyeball Licking
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Teenagers from every generation will always find a way to behave in a way that completely confounds adults from generations prior. Flagpole sitting, music festivals, planking and others have been curious yet mostly safe ways for kids to act out. Yet there are other dangerous trends out there that teenagers pick up that are more than confusing - many of which can be frightening and dangerous.

A new story this week describes one such trend called "Oculolinctus," or eye-ball licking, which has become all the rage in Japan. Website Naver Matome (translated by Japan Crush) first pointed out this trend earlier this week, as one sixth grade teacher from Japan accidentally discovered why many of his students were showing up to class with eye patches.

The teacher, known only as "Mr. Y," said the faculty at the school wasn't too worried when several students began showing up to class with styes, eye infections and eye patches. When the staff asked some of these students individually why they were wearing these patches or how they had gotten the infections, they indicated that it wasn't a big deal. However, once 10 students from the same class showed up wearing eye patches, the staff demanded answers.

Mr. Y tells the story of how he accidentally stumbled upon the eye-licking kids:

"After class one day, I went into the equipment store in the gymnasium to tidy up. The door had been left open, and when I looked inside, a male pupil and a female pupil had their faces close together and were kind of fumbling around," writes Mr. Y in his account of his experience with oculolinctus.

"Could it be bullying? I wondered, but when I had a good look, the boy was licking the girl's eye! Surprised, (I) shouted "What are you doing? Stop it at once!" and the two of them were so shocked they jumped apart. The girl burst into tears, and the boy just went bright red and was shaken up."

These sixth graders were reluctant to explain themselves to Mr. Y, but they eventually told him they had just started dating and eyeball licking is a popular way to show affection, like kissing or petting. The staff asked the rest of the class if eyeball licking was, in fact, a new trend, and one-third of the kids expressed they were participating in this activity.

This behavior is clearly dangerous, of course, and can spread bacteria that causes pink eye or other diseases.

"You're potentially traumatizing the eye," explained Dr. Robert Noecker, an ophthalmologist from Connecticut who spoke with MedicalDaily. "You can knock cells off and easily scratch the cornea, which can lead to a corneal ulcer that can be blinding."

As for why these kids are engaging in this behavior, Dr. Noecker says it likely feels good. The eyeball has plenty of nerve endings, meaning the potential for pleasure is high. The potential for risk, however, is just as high.

Though this particular story originated in Japan, a cursory YouTube search will reveal teenagers from all over the world over several years videotaping themselves licking one anothers' eyeballs. Dr. Noecker worries that impressionable teenagers may begin to see more of these videos and try oculolinctus for themselves. If this happens, there could be an even larger outbreak of pink eye amongst the world's youth.