A young man who dressed up as a red-eyed vampire for Halloween is now having difficulty going outside, due to scratches he suffered from the cosmetic contact lenses he wore for his costume.

Cody Duncanson has difficulty reading his cellphone, and cannot leave the house to go to work, because of the scratches the contacts left on his eyes.

“I can’t work. I can’t go outside because the air blowing in my eye is just the worst pain ever,” Duncanson told CTV Atlantic on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old from Sackville, N.S., says he started feeling pain in his eyes the day after he wore the contacts for a Halloween party. The pain grew and grew, prompting Duncanson to visit the emergency room.

Doctors told him there was an “oval ring of scratching” around the whites of his eyes. “I had a full 360 (degree) circle,” he said.

One doctor at the emergency room said cosmetic contacts have been known to cause corneal abrasions, which are scratches on the clear, protective covering over the iris. The scratching, he said, “can be quite painful and difficult for patients to deal with.”

Optometrist Erin Sheppard says the only way to be safe with cosmetic contacts is to have them fitted by a professional.

“When you don’t, though, you really are taking some pretty significant risks with your vision, which terrifies me, and should terrify the average person too,” she said.

The federal government is preparing to implement tighter restrictions on cosmetic contact lenses, but those new measures won’t come into effect until July 2016. The new regulations will treat cosmetic lenses the same as corrective lenses, so they will be subject to the same licensing, manufacturing and distribution regulations.

At the store where Duncanson purchased his contacts, the owner says anyone buying lenses is required to sign a waiver form first.

Duncanson still has vision in his eyes, and is hoping for good news when he visits a specialist next week. And while he was pleased with how his costume looked, he now regrets adding contacts to the ensemble.

“It’s not worth the pain I’m going through right now,” he said.

With files from CTV Atlantic