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Cosmetic Surgery for Better Looks in Vogue
Three years ago, Im Ji-on chose to go under the knife to have a "double eyelid" surgery. The plastic surgery involves the creation of a fold on the eyelid, which some women feel makes them more beautiful. Her parents offered her the operation as a gift for high school graduation.
Not satisfied with the shape and size of her newly created eyelids, she has since undergone five other such surgeries by many different doctors.
However, repeated operations to achieve "natural" looking double eyelids never lived up to her expectations. Each time a doctor complimented her about her artificial eyelids after surgery, Im would look at him in disbelief and start to nitpick for another surgery.
Im, craving an even better look with another type of surgery, became addicted to cosmetic surgery. She has got into the habit of surfing the Web to find out about where well-trained doctors operate in Seoul.
In a society where damaging any part of the body was once viewed as a breach of one's filial duty according to Confucian tenets, plastic surgery has gained wide acceptance.
In a recent survey of 5,109 teenagers under the age of 18 by Internet website Groonet.com, 75 percent said that they would take the chance of improving their looks through cosmetic surgery.
Most of them wanted double-eyelid operations, which is not costly and has become the norm for beauty-conscious women. In particular, many teenagers, most of whom are living in posh districts like Kangnam, south of the Han River, even expressed willingness to risk operations involving bone- shaving, to alter high cheekbones, to achieve the preferred "Western" look, the poll said.
With an increasing number of women resorting to plastic surgery, a new phenomenon of "compulsive plastic surgery" has been nagging surgeons. Once a woman has, say, eye surgery, she is more likely to then want to artificially enhance another part of her face, perhaps now her nose or lips.
"As many as 10 times a month, I wrangle with my clients craving more surgery," said a cosmetic surgeon, going by the name of Lee, who runs a clinic in Myongdong, downtown Seoul.
First, they go under the knife just looking for better looks. But they...