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Despite its ubiquity, there's more to eyeliner than meets the eye. This seldom-examined object frames the eyes of women on the New York City subway and Bedouin men in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Instagram influencers experiment with graphic liner designs, and supermodels sport wings on Paris runways. Members of the Taliban smear a form of eyeliner onto their lids to repel the sun, as do Afghan Pashtuns and tribes along the Himalayan and Afghanistan-Pakistan mountain ranges. Per religious tradition, living goddesses in Nepal decorate their eyes with the cosmetic, similar to kathakali storytellers in India, channeling tales both past and present. When they can't access retail liner, some women prisoners in the US make their own with pencil graphite and Vaseline. Fashion-conscious beatniks paired eyeliner with berets, and Russian dancers of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes donned flicks of it while onstage. Vikings wore charcoal to protect their vision during battle; even Mesopotamians may have used kohl, applying it with a stick shaped like a spatula. While they didn't use kohl as prolifically as the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greek women darkened their eyes with a mixture of soot, antimony, and burnt cork. The Prophet Muhammad was said to have worn a form of eyeliner, too, and spoke of its healing properties. There are traces of the cosmetic in the Old Testament, which mentions figures, including Jezebel, with "painted eyes"; two were "harlots," though the use of eye paint was not strictly considered objectionable per the scriptures. A disparate (and not remotely all-encompassing) list of characters and contexts, indeed—such is the reach of this versatile and influential object.

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After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, eyeliner sales soared—and lipstick sales plummeted—due to the widespread use of face masks. By 2021, the global eye makeup market had surged to $15.6 billion and was set to swell to $21.4 billion by 2027. The growth trajectory is staggering. It comes as no surprise, however, that eyeliner and eye pencils constitute the largest market segment, edging out mascara and eyeshadow by 5 percent.

Although eyeliner applications have varied over the centuries, cross- culturally, the aesthetic goal has always been the same: to beautify, enhance, or enlarge the eye. The cosmetic can transform faces from exhausted to awake, take an outfit from work appropriate to date appropriate, and elevate an overall look from bare and subdued to adorned and seductive—all with a few swipes. (Commenting on eyeliner's transformative power in her book I Feel Bad about My Neck, Nora Ephron wrote: "There are a couple of old boyfriends whom I always worry about bumping into, but there's no chance—if I ever did—that I would recognize either of them. On top of which they live in other cities. But the point is that I still think about them every time I'm tempted to leave the house without eyeliner.") Depending on the day, eyeliner wearers may be sultry or demure, rebellious or clean-cut, low-key or loud. Some are protecting themselves from evil spirits or honoring a god, while others may be treating their eyes for an infection or blocking the sun. Like ink itself, eyeliner helps us deliver messages to the world: we are confident, we belong to a proud subculture, we express ourselves, we are our own creations. There's an eyeliner style and a story for virtually every look.

The art of eyeliner application can be painstakingly precise: experts employ the care and consideration a painter or a calligrapher might use on a blank canvas. The rules are many, though malleable, and the technique can take years to perfect. The applicator must move steadily, to ensure the pigment glides seamlessly onto the eyelid or waterline. Apply too thick a line to the lid, and you risk shrinking the eye; apply lines that bleed, and you may give your eyes an undesirable raccoon effect. Different eye shapes can suit different styles—a black line on the lower waterline can make small eyes look smaller, whereas a single line along the upper lid may make them look bigger. Hinging on the angle of the upturn, wings can widen the eye—or, according to one TikToker, even reveal whether the wearer is a millennial or Gen Z.

The slightest quiver of the wrist can mean entire lines must be redrawn, a time-consuming struggle to which few are immune. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the American politician known aesthetically for her signature dark eyeliner and red lipstick, once posted on Instagram about her botched attempt at a wing: "I just want you all to know that no matter who you are or where you're from, no matter how much you achieve in life, eyeliner will always humble you," she said.

Applicators come in many forms, from fingers and bones to brushes and plastic rods. Some people use their pinkies to fine-tune their imperfect lines, while others use stencils, wipes, or cotton swabs. Color and consistency are important, too. Black eyeliner can be aging, while brown, green, or blue can be more flattering. (Princess Diana famously wore blue eyeliner, likely to echo the blue in her eyes.) Liquid, gel, and cream eyeliners are best used on lids, while pencils and powders work well on waterlines. And then there's the shape and length of the lines; the choices are endless, as Instagrammers and TikTokers have made clear. Your eyeliner can even be "sharp enough to kill a man," declares one popular meme—and cat-eye devotee Taylor Swift.