Belgian teen Kimberley Vlaminck with 56 stars tattooed on her face. No wonder she was worried her Dad would get pissed off.
I read this very scary article today in the Globe and Mail about the rise in teenagers getting plastic surgery. Apparently in the US, teenage procedures has doubled in the past eight years. It is bad enough trying to decide whether you do physics or not in high school (because that might affect whether you study engineering in university) but to make important decisions like that about your body when you are 15 is just wrong. (Ages of teens getting surgery range from 13 to 19 years old.)
It scares me a lot to see the number of teens getting massive tattoos in Vancouver. I see it on some of my students. I got my first tattoo when I was 16, but I was smart, I got it small, put it somewhere where it couldn’t be easily noticed, and made sure it was easy to incorporate into a larger tattoo ten years later, BECAUSE OF COURSE I WAS GOING TO REGRET SOMETHING I DID AT THE AGE OF 16. But a small tattoo is one thing, how about an entire arm of tattoos? Or a nose job? Or breast enlargements?
But I think it is also important to define what is acceptable surgery for teens. Nose jobs so that their Paris Hilton style sunglasses sit on their nose better (seriously, read the article) = NO. Breast reductions, if you have a very large cup size and back problems = YES.
The article quotes Oakley Smith, a Toronto-based surgeon, as saying “‘I think there are a lot of influences driving it. There’s the adolescent pressure to fit in and not stand out. There’s a bigger pressure toward perfection in today’s society. There’s a media pressure, too. All the media [portray] are perfect people and that seeps into young people’s consciousness to become a goal.’ Many media influences are specifically touting plastic surgery as a cure-all for supposed imperfections, he notes, citing the MTV reality show The Hills and star Heidi Montag, a young woman who has had multiple cosmetic surgeries before the age of 23, as especially suggestive.”
I think the real fear is that someone as flaky and pointless as Heidi Montag has such a powerful ability to influence people. People like her have always existed (well, not quite like her, but equally as ridiculous) and teens were able to think for themselves and not run out and copy the silly celebrities. Why is it suddenly happening now? And how much are the surgeons or the doctor’s governing bodies to blame? Plastic surgery used to be extremely expensive, but now anyone can afford it.
Lolo Ferrari. This is one of the most tasteful photos I could find of her.
One thing I do know, is that it is close to impossible to try and convince a teenager that something they desperately want to do is a bad idea. Once they have an idea in their head, it stays there until their early twenties. I guess the media needs to portray these freaks (the Heidi Montags of the world) as jokes to be laughed at, and hopefully the teens won’t get any more ideas. Or maybe we need to have more photos of Lolo Ferrari out in the public domain. She’s enough to turn anyone off plastic surgery for good.
Image sources:
Heidi Montag (scan from People)
Lolo Ferrari
