Sunday Times 2
South Korea tops global cosmetic surgery chart
View(s):By Claire Bates
South Koreans have more plastic surgery than any other nation, astonishing new figures reveal. Those in the Asian country have more treatments per members of the population, with one in every 77 turning to the knife or needle.
The figures, from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ISAPS), show that in 2011 15 million people across the globe turned to plastic surgery to enhance their looks.
Before and after:22-year-old Yu-Mi Kim
While the popularity of cosmetic surgery in South Korea may come as a surprise to many, the industry there is in fact booming. Last year, 20 per cent of women aged 19 to 49 in the capital city of Seoul admitted to going under the knife.
One of the most popular surgical procedures is double eyelid surgery – which reduces excess skin in the upper eyelid to make the eyes appear bigger and make them look more ‘Western’.
It is believed that the rise of the country’s music industry is behind the boom, and many patients visit clinics with photos of celebrities, asking surgeons to emulate American noses or eyes. Singer PSY, whose song ‘Gangnam Style’ became a global hit, said his record label had urged him to get plastic surgery.
Even Miss Korea 2012, Kim Yu-Mi, admitted she went under the knife to achieve her pageant-winning good looks.
The student revealed the secret after photos emerged of her looking very different at school, but she said she hadn’t misled anyone.
‘I never said I was born beautiful,’ she told Korean media. While South Korea topped the table in relative terms, when it came to total numbers of tucks, peels, fillers, jabs and lifts in their quest for the perfect body, America cemented its place at the top of the table in the poll of 20,000 surgeons.
Miss South Korea Yu-Mi Kim admitted having cosmetic surgery saying: 'I never said I was born beautiful'
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