Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they used to say, but it seems that is no longer true.
Beauty is now in the eye of the sufferer of BDD, or Body Dysmorphic Disorder, people who perpetually see themselves physically flawed and nothing short of hideous.
To assuage their nagging feeling of ugliness, the BDD sufferer has found a holy grail in plastic surgery, to the industry’s great content and the public’s morbid delight.
The pain of BDD comes at a great cost, not everyone can afford to satisfy their cravings for physical transformation, which is why our list is comprised mainly of the rich and famous.
Here are the most notorious cases of botched plastic surgery.
Jocelyn Wildenstein
Dubbed the “Bride of Wildenstein”, and rightly so, Wildenstein has spent an estimated $4m on her surgeries, which proves that money may buy you everything, but not good looks.
She was married to Alec Wildenstein, a prominent art dealer, when her penchant for surgery manifested itself, supposedly to please her husband, a hunter and lover of big felines.
Jocelyn Wildenstein's journey in cosmetic surgeries demonstrates the unsettling limits of wealth in pursuit of beauty.
Oddly enough, she has said that she is ecstatic with the work done on her face and feels beautiful. “Catwoman” Jocelyn Wildenstein is 82 and she is a fiance to a much younger Lloyd Klein, 55.
La Toya Jackson
“Beauty is only skin deep.”
Sir Thomas Overbury
Born the fifth child of the Jackson music clan, La Toya has had her ups and downs during her career and with her family, especially with her brother, the late Michael Jackson, whom she started to look more like after her procedure.
She’s changed her nose to the now familiar Jackson nose (see brother Michael and sister Janet), cheek and chin implants.
La Toya Jackson has a tumultuous relationship with both fame and family, personified in her own visage.
Like her two siblings mentioned here, she was a good-looking girl until her obsession with a perfect face took over.
Mickey Rourke
“I had my nose broken twice. I had five operations on my nose and one on a smashed cheekbone. Most of it was to mend the mess of my face because of the boxing, but I went to the wrong guy to put my face back together.”
Mickey Rourke
We all remember the handsome and youthful Mickey Rourke from 9 ½ Weeks, but that person is forever gone.
The Hollywood star made a bid to become a professional boxer and his face took the punishment.
Mickey Rourke's shift from silver-screen heartthrob to pugilistic casualty serves as a sobering metamorphosis.
He underwent plastic surgery to correct the damage with the evident results.
Fortunately for him, he has experienced a comeback with several blockbusters, garnering praise from critics and awards from the industry.
Seriously, with his new face and massive body, he could easily play The Hulk.
Hang Mioku
Undoubtedly the most hair-raising and horrible case of BDD ever recorded.
The former South Korean model has had multiple operations that have left her face enlarged, disfigured and unrecognizable.
Her case was so extreme that plastic surgeons refused to operate on her, recognizing an obvious underlying psychological problem.
After the refusals, Hang Mioku took matters into her own hands and started injecting cooking oil into her face, making her already disfigured face even worse.
Her tale begs the question: How far is too far when one's self-image becomes a distorted reflection?
After appearing on a S. Korean TV program, viewers were moved by her situation and sent money in so she could have surgery to reduce the size of her face.
During the first procedure surgeons removed 60g of foreign substance from Hang’s face and 200g from her neck.
After several other sessions her face was left greatly reduced but still scarred and disfigured.
Reflecting on the Hang Mioku bad surgery results, she now desires to reclaim her original facial features, expressing deep regret over her numerous procedures.
Dennis Avner
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde
Avner, who also went by his Native American name of “Stalking Cat”, held the Guinness Record for “Most permanent transformations to look like an animal” before he killed himself in 2012.
His journey ended in tragedy, leaving behind questions about the lengths one should go for self-expression.
His modifications included extensive tattooing, transdermal implants to fit whiskers in, subdermal implants to change the shape of the face and the filing and shaping of the teeth to make them look more like a tiger’s, his totem animal and the inspiration for his dramatic metamorphosis.
Michaela Romanini
The once pretty Italian socialite, more or less the equivalent of Paris Hilton in the US, has consistently abused surgery, lip collagen and Botox over the years and has been permanently left looking like a brute.
Her ceaseless surgical interventions expose the dark side of socialite status in a world obsessed with beauty.
The 52-year-old surgery addict started off young with her procedures, and it seems nothing can stop her in her quest to become an alien.
Daryl Hannah
The most beautiful mermaid ever to swim the seven seas has also had a plastic surgery nightmare.
Her Botox abuse to hide the wrinkles from her face and forehead but the result has made her look unreal, almost like a puppet.
She also had an eyelift and cheek augmentation.
Daryl Hannah: From ethereal mermaid to a cautionary tale of Botox overindulgence.
Thus, her cheek looks fuller, her forehead is tight and there is a total imbalance in the face.
This is clearly the result of overuse of Botox fillers.
Plastic surgeons say that she had the right set of surgeries but used a lot of Botox and overdid it.
As many other celebs, Hannah denies ever resorting to surgery, but the before and after pics tell a different story.
Scalpels can’t carve happiness—beware
In a world where beauty is often measured in likes and retweets, our list of surgically altered celebs serves as a cautionary tale that not all upgrades come with a ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ label.
From the feline allure of Jocelyn Wildenstein to the tragic tale of Dennis Avner, these stories remind us that the quest for physical perfection can sometimes lead to a labyrinth of regret.
Thus, if you’re ever pondering a minor surgical ‘adjustment,’ bear in mind that a scalpel can’t sculpt joy.
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