I'm terrible putting things near my eyes too; mascara is a total bitch for me to put on. As for my own hangups, I really hate anyone seeing my legs. I've just never been happy with them, so it's incredibly rare for me to wear shorts. I'm pretty much in jeans all year round XD
Pssh, the saying is "Necessity is the mother of all invention."
It's a very good way of getting things out of someone's eye. Apparently, it was actually quite a common practice in steel mills, and places like that where you get sparks flying about the place. One in your eye? Get someone to lick it out. Nowadays I assume they actually wear goggles, but whatever =P