PHOTO: The man with hairs growing out of his EYEBALL

A 19-year-old Iranian man could see an unusually hairy problem. 

A rare cyst on his right eyeball sprouted hairs - impairing his vision and causing him discomfort every time he blinked. 

The hairy eyeball was the result of a limbal dermoid - skin tissue that can sprout hair, cartilage, sweat glands and even teeth.

Anomaly: The 'hairy eyeball,' caused by a tumor called a limbal dermoid, is so rare an optometrist is likely to see only one or two cases a year

Doctors had to surgically remove the tumor - which measured 5mm by 6mm - after it began to interfere with the patient's daily life. 

The New England Journal of Medicine reported the bizarre medical anomaly after it was submitted by doctors at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Tabriz, Iran.
'He did not have pain, but the mass caused vision defects, mild discomfort on blinking, and the intermittent sensation of the presence of a foreign body,' the journal reported.

The man said he had been born with the mass, but it had gradually been growing in size.
It had begun impairing his vision - his left eye was 20/20, but his right eye saw only 20/60.

The hairy cyst is about twice the size of libal dermoids that doctors usually see, Dr Richard Meetz, a clinical professor at the Indiana University School of Optometry, told MailOnline.

Limbal dermoids are rare - occurring in about one in 10,000 patients. 

'I have seen a couple in my career, but I’ve seen over a 100,00 patients,' he said.

The cysts are always congenital - developing in the womb when skin cells get misplaced in the eye as it is developing.  

The hairy spot on the Iranian man's eye is made of the same kinds of tissue that forms skin. 

Cysts like the one pictured can occur in various places on the body.

They can grow can hair follicles, sweat glands and cartilage. In very rare cases, teeth can even form. However, Dr Meetz said he is unsure whether a limbal dermoid with teeth had ever been found on an eyeball.

The biggest complication from limbal dermoids come from vision impairment. Because of the placement of the cyst on the eyeball, they warp a patient's vision and can prevent sharp, clear eyesight from developing.