Been there, done that. There are certain welding rods that are "contact" rods - once the arc is started, you can put the flux coated portion of the rod to the work without it 'sticking' (7014 is one of these rods). We had one fixture at work that required you to at least tack one part "blind" - I could run a nice 2" or so bead on that fixture blind after a while

I've done my share of welding with no gloves, apron etc - just a tee shirt. You will probably get spatter burns on your hands, and if you do more than a few seconds, you'll get a sunburn. If it's 5-10 seconds in an emergency, there are probably worse things than you can do. That said, as everyone else said - don't try to look at the arc - a split second flash is bad enough