Sanrio has done pretty well with their Hello Kitty character since she was first introduced on a vinyl coin purse in 1976. These days the cult-favorite feline rakes in an astounding $5 billion (with a b, folks) for the Japanese wholesaler.

Hello Kitty and her "friends" (including but not limited to, ChocoCat, Kurami, Keroppi and Badz Maru) can be found on everything from cheap pen and paper sets to bicycles and scooters to real diamond pendants and Stratocaster guitars to a freaking Airbus A330-2000 commercial passenger jet!

Since that signature red bow is pretty much everywhere, I guess I shouldn't have been as shocked as I was when I saw an ad for Hello Kitty contacts. That's right. Contact lenses -- as in those transparent pieces of plastic that you put onto your eyeballs.

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Now, while these are strictly for cosmetic (read: kitsch) purposes and won't help to correct your vision in any way, people are seriously opting to put colored kitty rings onto their eyeballs -- and they're not seven, we're talking grown-ups here.

Maybe it's because they're affordable (a mere $19.90 per pair plus a "cute" lens case), maybe it's because they come in a host of 7 wholly un-natural shades, or maybe it's just because people are nuts. I'm going with the latter.

I mean, I get just as "aw, isn't that cute?" as the next gal anytime I'm in a Sanrio shop, but I have to draw the line at having Kitty corneas.

How about you? Would you wear Hello Kitty contacts?

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