preview

Cosmetic Surgery : The Plastic Surgery Capital Of The World

Decent Essays

Many people know that South Korea is known as the plastic surgery capital of the world. Plastic surgery was once a major taboo in Korea, where those who have gotten it done would be looked down upon on by family and friends, but now the pursuit of perfection has made cosmetic surgery much more popular and open to the public. About one in five women in Korea would have some kind of plastic surgery done, and many neighborhoods and subway stations are lined with advertisements and billboards to promote clinics by showing before and after photos (Graham, Popularity Surgery Shrouded in Shame). In my experience of living in South Korea for a few months, I did notice that there were many cosmetic surgery advertisements in certain districts of Seoul. In those areas, I would typically see women’s faces all bandaged up from those procedures that got done and they wouldn’t care if people judged.
The history of plastic surgery in Korea goes back to when an American plastic surgeon named Dr Ralph Millard, who arrived in Korea in 1954 and performed double eyelid procedures for patients who wanted to create a more ‘Caucasian’ appearance for their eye area in order to help them assimilate better into an international economy (Stone, K-Pop Plastic Surgery Obsession)”. Millard’s main intent in Korea was to treat Korean accident and burn victims, but instead “helped” in a different way then planned by performing the first recorded double eyelid procedure in South Korea. As time went on,

Get Access