Moving to ban eyeball bling

Illinois lawmakers want to take the glint out of your eye.

A House committee last week approved legislation 11 to 4 that would criminalize the practice of inserting jewelry into the surface of the eyeball, according to an Associated Press report. Yup, you read that right--eyeball piercing.

The nascent procedure--which is performed with a local anesthetic--involves making a tiny slice in the mucous membrane covering the eyeball and slipping in a small, heart- or half-moon-shaped piece of metal called a JewelEye. As a result, the white of the eye assumes a new gleam.

The Illinois proposal, sponsored by Democratic state Rep. Kevin Joyce, would make performing the 15-minute eyeball procedure a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. Joyce was put off by reports of eyeball piercing in the Netherlands and wanted to prevent such body mods on his home turf. Not that the technique is sweeping the Midwest or anything (as far as we know).

"I don't think anybody should be messing with the eyeball," Joyce said.

A Google search reveals that Illinois is home to numerous venues for laser eye surgery.

Gerrit Melles, director of the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery in Rotterdam, says he hasn't seen complications or side effects associated with eyeball piercing, which so far has been performed on just a handful of people. "It is a bit of a fun thing and a very personal thing for people," the physician, who helped pioneer the technique, has been quoted as saying.

Safety concerns aside, Democratic State Rep. Constance Howard, one of four lawmakers who voted against the Illinois measure, questioned whether the prohibition infringes on people's rights.

"I don't want people to get earrings on their tongues and navels and all that stuff, either," she said, "but why is it my business where they want to put jewelry?"