Addicted to Plastic Surgery

“Is good looking everything?” SBS TV investigative program “Seeking the Truth” (10:50 p.m. Saturday) is set to air “Society Encourages Plastic Surgeries” on August 24 to report increasing ill-effects of plastic surgeries.

A 51-year-old woman running a holiday inn in Daegu makes a chilling remark, “I am afraid of having a cold shot, but I feel pleasure when I hear my bone ground off.” She already went through 8 times of plastic surgeries, getting wrinkles and fat removed as well as getting her eyes, nose and lips done. But she is willing to do more because she just feels happy when people say, “You look prettier than before.” She suffered for about a year from an ill effect after getting fat removed by an unlicensed practitioner, but recently she went to see a doctor again to remove fat under her eyes.

Ryu has yet to show symptoms of severe adverse effects, but the producing team said people going through plastic surgeries have higher chances of developing severe side effects than those undergoing other surgical operations.

A 29-year-old woman who wanted to fix her chin fell into comma during procedures last December after bleeding too much blood.

Ill effects of plastic surgeries, however, most times are kept a secret since people rarely tell others that they have had operations. A housewife got her nose done 7 times without telling her husband about it.

The investigative program also points to that some beauty parlors, saunas and saloons introduce their customers to clinics in return for money offerings. Especially, saloon madams are notorious for luring people. They not only take B-girls to clinics but also borrow them money for surgeries.

Soo-Kyung Kim skkim@donga.com