Howard Hughes was a smart man. Smarter than people think. Smart enough to escape his problems by hiring stand-ins to draw people off his trail while he fled his problems. One of them went to the grave in his place. In seclusion, he married a woman who kept his secret for 30 years. This strange story of love and deception can finally be told.
A quick search of the internet will reveal a number of medical facilities that surgically change eye color today. However, when Howard/Nik has the surgery done in the ‘60s it was still experimental. The end result was not exactly perfect.
The iris of the eye is made up of many shades and hues of color, and even different colors. The prevalent color dominates to give the impression of a specific eye color. In Howard/Nik’s experimental surgery all of the shades, hues and colors were eliminated and replaced with a solid, deep blue color that looked very strange and reflective. Everyone that we spoke with who knew Nik remarked about his unnatural, almost surreal, eyes.
It’s interesting to note that today this eye color change technique has been adopted by body modification enthusiasts. In addition to tattoos and body piercings, changing the iris of the eye to a solid color has become popular for shock value, such as changing the iris to red. As a shock technique it certainly works.
Book Excerpt
Boxes: The Secret Life of Howard Hughes: Second Edition
As they spent more time together and their relationship grew, Eva discovered much about this man, Verner, who called himself Nik, which was unusual. She was fascinated by his eyes. Eva always believed that the eyes were the window to a person’s soul. If so, Nik’s windows were closed. Nik had brilliant, midnight-blue eyes like she had never seen before. “They were the bluest of blue,” she remembered. Her image would reflect in his eyes as though they were mirrored glasses, but they were impenetrable to her. At first, she thought he wore special contact lenses, but she later learned that he didn’t. Those blue mirrors were his real eyes, and they didn’t work very well. When Eva first met him, he could hardly see anything. He needed bifocals with very thick lenses to read any sort of printed matter, and even then, only if he held it very close to his face.
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