I was helping a friend of the family out once w/ his bees, and he was the kind of keeper that didn't have any veils. I ended up getting stung three times on the same side of my face (twice in my eyebrow, once next to the eye) when they got angry, and I had to leave ASAP and drive 20 minutes home before the swelling would affect my vision.

I was out of commission for about a week after that. The whole right side of my face was swollen, and I couldn't see out of that eye for most of that time. It looked like I got in a fight and lost :)

And that was the last time I went into a hive without a veil.