Advertisement

The Latest Beauty Ideal That’s Sending Women To Dangerous Lengths

Clara Tolentino holds a photo of her deceased sister Fiordaliza Pichardo during an interview with the Associated Press Friday Sept. 18, 2009, in New York. Two years ago, she says she paid $2,000 to have a woman with no known medical training inject liquid silicone into her buttocks. In March of 2009 her 43-year-old sister died less than a week after undergoing similar black market cosmetic injections. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MARY ALTAFFER
Clara Tolentino holds a photo of her deceased sister Fiordaliza Pichardo during an interview with the Associated Press Friday Sept. 18, 2009, in New York. Two years ago, she says she paid $2,000 to have a woman with no known medical training inject liquid silicone into her buttocks. In March of 2009 her 43-year-old sister died less than a week after undergoing similar black market cosmetic injections. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MARY ALTAFFER

Amid an inundation of voluptuous singers, reality television stars, and models in the media in recent years, the demand for a round, full derriere has increased among women of various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. And members of the cosmetic surgery industry — both legal and in the black market — have risen to meet this need. However, doing so has placed an increasing number of impressionable women at risk of serious injury and death.

Such was the case earlier this month when Kelly Mayhew of Suitland, Maryland died in a hospital after she received an injection from an unlicensed doctor in New York. Mayhew’s mother later told authorities that soon after the procedure wrapped up, the victim had trouble breathing and her doctor subsequently fled the scene, never to be seen again.

Sophelay Ouk of Rhode Island experienced similar trouble after her recent surgery. Though she lived to tell the tale, it wasn’t without developing pneumonia, coughing up blood, and dealing with swelling in her leg and numbness in her foot — caused by the penetration of her lungs by silicone. She still undergoes surgery to remove pieces of the material.

“I wanted the round butt. The whole J-Lo look,” Ouk told CNN. “I wasn’t ready to dish out $10,000 or $20,000 for a Brazilian butt lift. Everything seemed so legit [but] that whole night was just a nightmare. I was just so shaky. I couldn’t breathe.”

Advertisement

Such stories haven’t affected the market for silicone butt injections, due in part to the evolution of surgical techniques and what some patients call a desire to emulate high-profile stars like Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez.

A 2014 report by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons showed that surgeons performed more than 11,000 augmentation procedures — a 15 percent increase from the previous year — during which they transferred fat from the abdomen or thighs to the buttocks region. Buttock implants, another type of procedure, also increased by 98 percent that year. Clientele often ranges from exotic dancers, models, to professional women desperate for a new look.

On average, butt augmentation procedures cost nearly $4,500, not including anesthesia, use of operating room facilities, and other expenses. The high cost often compels some women to seek the services of uncertified surgeons. A Food and Drug Administration investigation in 2012 uncovered a decade-long buttock injection scheme in Atlanta in which women doled out up to $1,600 for silicone buttock injection procedures in hotel rooms. However, the silicone used was intended for metal or plastic lubrication. Kimberly Smedley, the leader of the ring, is now serving jail time for her involvement.

Regardless of the manner in which patients augment their buttocks, plastic surgeons say there’s no escaping the long-term effects, even without immediate complications. When silicone gel isn’t contained within a shell — as with implants — the substance can migrate to other areas of the body, and cause allergic reactions, fatigue, and joint pain. Tansar Mir, a plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said that women make inquiries about the procedure often aren’t educated about its dangers, especially if they visit an unaccredited facility and receive injections from a doctor without board certification.

“I am seeing an increase in the number of people who’ve had it done, who are coming to see me,” Mir told LiveScience. “There’s an increase in awareness for sure. These foreign materials are not meant to be freely floating in the body. The patient’s immune system becomes comprised because the majority of the immune cells are being occupied fighting the foreign material in the buttocks.”

Advertisement

If someone holds a negative view about their body, nothing may stop them from exploring this risky option. People who apathetically compare their body to doctored images they see on television, the internet, and magazines may feel uncomfortable in their body and self-conscious about their image. The National Eating Disorders Association designates these feelings as the root cause of an eating disorder, depression, isolation, low self-esteem. The same may very well be the case for more than 90 percent of women who admitted hating a part of their body, even if for a moment.

With so many dangers associated with butt injections, where else do women desiring a rotund bottom have left to go? Experts who count conventional exercise as the most foolproof way of increasing butt volume stress that the results occur naturally, last longer, and carry a significantly reduced risk of complication. Cosmopolitan Magazine recently endorsed a host of techniques including heel raises, jump squats, and single leg bridges — all guaranteed to burn fat and change the contours of one’s waist and buttocks without the need for surgery.