Ever wonder how David Bowie got two different colored eyes? Did you think it was a gimmick he did on purpose, or maybe he was born that way? Well, here's the real story...

Watch it here:

http://www.thebiographych..._Bowie.htm

(Click the pic of Bowie after you follow the link)

Yeah, I read this in a diffrent interview a few years ago. He said he initially got teased about it, but learned to view it as a badge of honor.

OdysseyMiles said:

i think it's funny that the guy who knocked the color out of his eye went on to design the ziggy stardust album cover.

Anx said:

That's how men are. We can beat the living daylights out of each other on the basketball court, then apologize and go get a beer.

In fact, the puncher is still a very good friend of him, as far as I know.

BTW, my cousin really has two differently coloured eyes. One blue and one brown, and in the brown is a little blue edge. Don't know how he managed that.
[Edited 4/14/06 11:26am]

I miss Bowie... I hope he comes back out with something soon. I recently read on bowieaudio.com about someone (don't remember the name) working on strings for his new album.

I didn't think they were really different colors. I thought that one of his pupils was permanently dilated.

did anyone see the pic of him in concert from a few years back possibly where a fan threw I think a lollypop stick and it actually went in his eye
as if his poor peepers havent suffered enough .

I love Bowie's wonky eyes!

moonshine said:

I remember a newspaper article about this (or maybe it was online, can't remember), where the person responsible said that she (I think it was a 'she') held her arm up and somebody punched it from the back. This then made the lollypop fly into Bowie's eye.

Didn't he even curse a little?

GangstaFam said:

I think you're right, actually. Although maybe one of his eyes has a slightly darker shade, IIRC.

GangstaFam said:

one brown. one grey. i guess they're not two different "colors" if all the color was basically smacked out of one eye. one eye has color, one doesn't.

and my GOD, he's looking rough.

Is that a recent picture?

Anx said:

I think that they're both blue, but the enlarged pupil gives that eye the illusion of being grey. Check here.

Novabreaker said:

Should be around a year old. Maybe a little less? When was his performance with Arcade Fire? This is from before that.

GangstaFam said:

yes, but that picture is tinted. he has tinted out the dual eye colors in several of his album covers and promo shots. for a while, around the outside/earthling days, he wore matching blue contacts.

but you may be right.

Anx said:

I'm not sure that I'm right, but even in that clip they say that the dilated pupil gave the appearance of having 2 differently colored eyes.

GangstaFam said:

and i'm sure his eyes have also been tinted in photos and cover art to emphasize the messed up eyes.

Anx said:

Yeah, definitely. I know "Scary Monsters" is just a painting, but it's really exaggerated there.

GangstaFam said:

pin-ups too, i think...and the life on mars video, with all its saturation..

Anx said:

I that. That song and video together will always be one of my favorite Bowie moments.

I think the real question here is though that why do I have such mismatched ears. Am I the David Bowie of earlobes in this case?

As far as I know, one cannot have the color "knocked out" of one's eye. The pigment is not like a liquid that fills the iris, but rather the aggregate of the amount of melanin in each tissue cell. What's more, the succession of color in an eye goes from blue for the least pigment to brown for the most -- so, hypothetically, any lessening of pigment would shift Bowie's already blue eyes lighter to pink (the near absence of pigment revealing tiny blood vessels, as with an albino), NOT darker to brown.

A truly darkening iris probably suggests bleeding more than anything else.

All this is called "heterochromia," and some people (but more often domesticated animals like Siberian Huskies) do naturally have this -- usually due to genetics or disease. More common than two entirely different iris colors, though, this usually shows up as "hazel" eyes -- eyes with variations of color within each iris.

None of this, however, applies to Bowie. His irises are the same color, as far as the story goes. It's just that one pupil is permanently dilated, making that eye appear darker than the other, as GangstaFam said.
[Edited 4/15/06 23:36pm]

well i'm going back to my cabin to whittle a spell, cuz they look different to me.

calldapplwondery83 said:

My fiance's eyes change color depending on what mood she is in.

Militant said:

Mine do a bit as well.

Militant said:

Guys...you appear to have all read the fucking website's reasoning wrong. It didn't say he had the colour punched out, it actually said - as the others were saying - "the result of a schoolyard fight that left one pupil permanently enlarged" - so Bowie has one permanently dilated eye; which makes it seem darker. This is the first time I heard this, I used to think he had different coloured eyes. This must mean he sees really weirdly..like, he must see so much brighter than everyone else with that much more light allowed into his eyes.

Cool. Thanks for the info My friends dog has one blue and one brown eye. Shes called Bonnie, I still think they should have celled her Bowie!

I have hazel eyes...well, the inside is green and the outside is brown. I didnt realise that was quite so cool until now! Theres a name for it!