Surprisingly, pouring vodka into your eyes is not a new concept. A quick look at the YouTube videos on the subject shows entries from three years ago. However, it is a drinking fad that is steadily growing in public recognition and popularity. 

There are many pundits dismissing vodka eyeballing as a few crazy teens, but that is how most things start. The choking game started out as just a few teens looking for a quick high.  Look at how many deaths we are seeing from that game now.

There are over 800 YouTube entries under “vodka in the eye”…..compared to other popular fads like, “vodka and Redbull,” which has 1,710 YouTube entries. Eyeballing vodka even has a Facebook page- here. So, I would say the fad is legitimately worthy of a warning to parents and participants.

“Vodka eyeballing” is simply pouring vodka directly into the eyes. It is done in effort to get drunk faster, do something cool, or impress peers.  Fox News claims that the activity originated in the U.K. and has migrated to the United States.

Teens claim that vodka eyeballing makes you drunk faster because it passes through the mucous membrane of the eye  and enters the bloodstream directly through veins in the eye. A little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing! Many experts are skeptical about this fast drunk theory.   The person pouring vodka into their eye would actually experience inflammation of the eye and clotting of eye blood vessels because the eye does not have any lining (like the intestinal lining of the stomach) to protect the eye from the harsh alcohol.

Maybe these teens are already in a drunken stupor, and have managed to convince themselves that such will get them drunk faster? Maybe they are doing it as a dare fad? I don’t know, but whatever the reason, I can not fathom why anyone would want to torture themselves by pouring alcohol into their eyes. Imagine how much it burns when you pour alcohol into an open cut, or just take a shot of vodka down the gullet; now, imagine that burn in your eye!

Eyeballing vodka is not just about a stupid and  painful fad. When you pour alcohol into your eye, you can damage your eye, and even go blind. Just 40%-50% alcohol can burn and scar the cornea. BBC tells the story of Melissa, a 22 -year-old former college student, who is now left with an eye that is constantly watering and in pain after permanent scarring from eyeballing vodka. Her doctor also warned her that her eyesight may worsen even further as she ages. Read her story here.

I will leave you with a little food for thought. Lord Byron said, “Man being reasonable must get drunk; The best of life is but intoxication; Glory, the grape, love, gold – in these are sunk – The hopes of all men and of every nation.” I just ask… must he do so through his eyeballs.