# Oddly uneven pupils (the eye kind)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-uneven-pupils-the-eye-kind/216899>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 4, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-uneven-pupils-the-eye-kind/216899 "2003-12-04T08:11:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-uneven-pupils-the-eye-kind/216899/1 "2003-12-04T08:11:43Z")

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Please forgive any misuse of them there scientifical words for eye parts in the following. For the purposes of this discussion “pupil” is the black part in the middle and “iris” is the coloured part around it before you get to the white bits with all the veins.

I’ve recently started working with a guy who has one “normal” eye and one where the pupil appears to be not only larger than the other one but oblong. It is mostly centred, but then becomes oblong and seems to extend to the limit of the iris. He’s not wearing a contact lense on either eye, as far as I can tell, and neither one appears to be prosthetic.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what would cause this?

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**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-uneven-pupils-the-eye-kind/216899/2 "2003-12-04T08:35:31Z")

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Don’t know about the strange shape of the pupil, but David Bowie has uneven pupils due to an injury at school in his early teens.

Julie

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**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-uneven-pupils-the-eye-kind/216899/3 "2003-12-04T08:52:28Z")

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Not sure about the unusual shape either. I’ve noticed people who get stoned often have one pupil larger than the other though, while they’re under the influence. Always wondered about that, too.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddly-uneven-pupils-the-eye-kind/216899/4 "2003-12-04T11:08:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shrinking Violet \*  
> **Don’t know about the strange shape of the pupil, but David Bowie has uneven pupils due to an injury at school in his early teens.**

It’s worse than that. They are also different colors.

[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971205.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971205.html)

> [@](#):
>
> One way to get heterochromia is to have somebody punch you in the eye as a kid. That seems to be what happened to David Bowie, who got popped at age 12 in a dispute over a girl. In many such cases the iris of the popped eye gets darker. In Bowie’s case the pupils are also of noticeably and, dare I say, eerily different sizes.