Black Market Buttocks Enhancements Creating ‘Burgeoning Epidemic’ in the U.S.

Remember when we told you women in Venezuela are dying as a result of injections administered to add volume to their behinds? Turns out Americans are not exempt from this deadly fad.

In Venezuela the harmful substances used were biopolymers, but in the U.S. some black market doctors are allegedly using “concrete and the industrial silicone sold at hardware stores” as enhancers and often close flesh wounds with Super Glue after the injections. Victims of the pernicious procedures have suffered disfiguration as well as death, prompting the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and authorities to treat the illegal injections as the cause of an American health crisis in the making.

Vice magazine:

Like thousands of women across the globe and increasingly in the US, [Oscarina Busse has suffered] from the side effects of a black-market butt injection. Because of its clandestine nature, it’s impossible to quantify exactly how many people in the US are illegally getting their butts pumped up…But the number is definitely growing; due to the proliferation of reported disfiguring cases like Oscarina’s and even deaths, law-enforcement officials and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons view black-market butt injections as a burgeoning epidemic in the US.

The crude inflation procedure consists of shooting a liquid substance such as silicone or mineral oil directly into a client’s butt cheeks and hips through a syringe. There is no substance that is safe to inject into your body to create more volume, not even medical-grade silicone…

Anyone with a basic understanding of health and medicine knows that pumping someone’s body full of free-flowing substances like silicone is extremely dangerous. Hence it has been illegal to inject fluids like silicone into the body for cosmetic purposes since the late 60s, so these butt-pumping procedures are typically performed by back-alley quacks—rogue nut jobs with suitcases full of dirty needles and flasks full of muck. These procedures can trigger a strong autoimmune response as the body attempts to expel the foreign substance, resulting in inflammatory reactions such as polyps, boils, skin discoloration, and even necrosis. These substances have also been known to migrate through the body and fuse themselves to organs, or enter into the bloodstream, spreading infection throughout the body and causing septic shock—which can lead to the amputation of infected body parts or, in the worst cases, death….finding a butt doctor in the United States is like buying drugs; you just have to know a guy who knows a guy. These hookups happen through word of mouth, as well as via forums and social media sites. In Miami, America’s epicenter for clandestine butt surgery, it’s as easy as walking into a beauty spa where, among the massages, aromatherapy, and saunas, customers can allegedly order a bevy of illegal silicone butt shots off a secret menu.

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—Posted by Natasha Hakimi

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