Plastic, Cosmetic Surgery or Mutilation? ©

Ben Bustillo – Prohibited its reproduction

            Did I ever consider any changes to my physical appearance? At this stage of my life, would I consider one? Absolutely no! I never even consider changing the color of my hair that is more salt than pepper, which it would be an easy thing to do, much less going to a surgical procedure that no matter how anyone looks at it brings a degree of risk and something that I adventure to define differently: mutilation. Even if it had the best success and everyone around me say that I look better than before. Perhaps I would believe them for a short moment, but the truth is that those who go under a change of appearance through surgery know that is just a fleeting illusion, since studies show that neither type of plastic or cosmetic lasts long enough to satisfy a one time trial to see how it goes. Furthermore, those changes reveal a great truth: what took place was a disfiguration converting it to a mutilation.

Plastic and cosmetic surgery and mutilation are three different things with one single purpose: to find beauty through a medical procedure, or a way of adding jewelry like rings or art expressions to a body using some sort of self-mutilation. For example, tattoos and ears, nose, eyelids, cheeks and sexual organs piercing; perhaps the term mutilation is not appropriate or accepted in general to define the so popular practice, but the parallel between these two resemblances equals the lot of courage needed to go under any procedure. I imagine, because I would never contemplate any type of mutilation; just by using simple logic, not only that you have to go through a painful operation or recovery in addition to the exposures to health complications, but one also needs to consider the high risk of side effects produced by a surgery performed by a doctor or just a mere beautician.

The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery unequivocally marks the difference between cosmetic and plastic surgery; the first one is “to enhance an appearance and the second one to reconstruct or repair a normal function.” Tattoos and piercing fit a category between the two definitions, although others  call it as self-mutilation. Frances E. Mascia-Lees and Patricia Sharpe are one of those who with their book titled Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation and Adornment: The Denaturalization of the Body in Culture and Text stating that:

“The body as a site of adornment, manipulation, and mutilation, practices with roots reaching far back in the human record, at least 30,000 years.

At archeological sites in Africa, for example, scientists have uncovered bits of clothing on some of our human ancestors; objects from a wide variety of cultures have displayed and recorded forms of body modifications for centuries. Bound feet, flesh permanently marked either by a knife or tattoo needle, elongated ear lobes, stretched necks, deformed skulls, shrunken heads – these are practices that have long fascinated the West where they have been viewed as exotic distortions of the body, as is suggested in the standard mythology of “mutilation” and deformation itself.” (1)

Tattoos and body piercing are trends culturally motivated and have been around human behavior for centuries; breasts implants is a fairly new procedure appearing for the first time in Japan in the 1940s states a research done by PBS “where Japanese prostitutes have their breasts injected with substances such as paraffin, sponges and non-medical grade silicone to enlarge their breasts, believing that American servicemen favor women with large breasts.”

In the 1960s the first silicone breast implants are developed by two plastic surgeons from Texas: Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin and in 1962 Timmie Jean Lindsey becomes the first woman to receive silicone breast implants continues to narrate the study presented by PBS. In the 1980s and 1990s a surge for an interest in changing appearances took form to a more openly and accepted method of rejuvenation in equal or lesser amount among men and women. It was not anymore a world reserved for women once men began to do similar or just concentrated on the men’s dominance of a superior human being, including penile enlargement.

It’s so normal the advancement on the practice and technology of cosmetic surgery that nowadays-even teenagers are going under the scalpel; the favorite transformations are breast enlargement and rhinoplasty.

Studies show that some people who went to have cosmetic surgery became addicted creating monstrosities and disfigurations in themselves prompting again the term mutilation rather than cosmetic or plastic surgery.  But the worst is the effects resulting from the so called self-beautifying; for instance, on a breast implant “loss of sensation occurring between 10% to 70% of the time” quoting Dr. Nahai president of  the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) said to Miriam Marcus in an article written for Forbes. “What’s worst? Breast reductions, where the nipple and areola are removed and reattached as skin grafts” ended saying Dr. Nahai to Marcus.

Seroma (water accumulation often on tummy tucking) and necrosis (death of tissues on surgical manipulation,) hematoma (excessive bleeding,) infections (rarely but they can occur and stopped immediately) and death (more rare but they happen by a high toxic levels of anesthetics – as it happen recently with Joan Rivers) are other possible consequences of mal taken decision of going through a surgical modification of a body.

Now, when it comes to tattoos, some side effects are permanent as the allergic reactions caused by the use of the colors blue, red, yellow and green; skin infections and problems (bumps around the tattoo ink called granulomas;) if the equipment used to create the tattoo is infected blood, you can also get tetanus and hepatitis B and C. Similar consequences can occur by piercing some parts of a body, including the genitals. Moreover, by inserting a jewelry in any part of your body if it gets caught and torn out accidentally potentially requiring stitches or other repair.

I am not using any research based on a religious viewpoint because it does not matter to conclude with my thought that any surgery whether cosmetic or plastic leads to a form of mutilation.

Works Cited

“Chronology of Silicone Breast Implants” Frontline/WGBH Educational Foundation PBS.org 1995 – 2014. Web. January 30 2015.

Marcus, Miriam. Ten Plastic Surgery Risks you Need to Know. Forbes. 2015 Forbes.com. Web. January 30, 2015.

Mascia-Lees, Frances E., and Patricia Sharpe. Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation, And Adornment : The Denaturalization Of The Body In Culture And Text. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1992. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery © The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery 2009 - 2015.Web. January 30 2015.