Eyeball-licking is the new thing in elementary school Japan, and it’s grossing out netizens. Teachers became aware of the trend when an increasing number of students began turning up in school with eye patches.

Known as oculolinctus or simply “worming,” the popular eyeball-licking activity was revealed in an article on the Japanese Web site, Never Matome, which was translated by Japan Crush.

Apparently, the bizarre trend is a show of affection among pre-teens in Japan today, sort of like the equivalent of getting into second base with their crush.

A teacher named Mr. Y told the Web site that they were baffled at first why many students were getting eye infections in their class. When homeroom teachers questioned the students, the children would just answer that they didn’t know anything about it. At that time there were an average of five to ten kids in a single class who all wore eye patches.

“After class one day, I went into the equipment store in the gymnasium to tidy up. The door had been left open, and when I looked inside, a male pupil and a female pupil had their faces close together and were kind of fumbling around. Could it be bullying? I wondered, but when I had a good look, the boy was licking the girl’s eye!

“Surprised, I shouted, ‘What are you doing? Stop it at once!’ and the two of them were so shocked they jumped apart. The girl burst into tears, and the boy just went bright red and was shaken up. At any rate, to try to calm them down I took them to the janitor’s room and listened to their story,” Mr. Y said.

It was then revealed that one third of the kids, particularly those in the sixth grade class, had done “eyeball licking.”

It’s not known how the trend started, although Shanghaiist.com theorised that it might have come from a music video from the Japanese band Born, in which the lead singer gets his eyeball licked by a woman.

Understandably, netizens from all over the world are grossed out and confused by the whole licking trend. A theory, according to The Guardian, about why it has taken off is due to fact that eyeballs are incredibly sensitive and could be an erogenous zone for some. The sensation could perhaps be compared to that of toe-sucking.

Also, as painfully obvious to many people, eyeball-licking presents many health hazards. It can spread pink eye (viral conjunctivitis), symptoms of which include redness, inflammation, and excessive eye watering. Also, the practice can cause corneal ulcer, can spread herpes, and can leave eyes prone to bacterial conjunctivitis, which, if left untreated, can damage eyesight irreversibly.