ModBlog reader Brendan sent me this link of a news story NBC posted recently. It seems that a plastic surgeon has invented a “new surgery” that can reverse the process of stretched ears.
When Daniel Bocchino was 16, he started stretching his ear lobes, expanding them until he had an inch-wide hole in each lobe. But by the time he was 19, he was so over the piercing trend known as ear gauging. He removed the thick plugs from his lobes and slathered the holes with all kinds of weird ointments and creams, hoping the stretched-out skin would just shrink back up. But that’s not how it works — once that hole is stretched any wider than 6 millimeters, there’s no going back.
Glatt, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Morristown, N.J., says he’s seeing more people — mostly young people, and mostly men — who started gauging their ears as teenagers and are now joining the military, seeking a professional job or, like Bocchino, are simply over the fad, and are trying to figure out how to fill that hole back up. The surgery takes about half an hour per ear, and costs anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000, which Bocchino paid for himself with the money he makes as a tattoo artist. He says he’s happy about the results — the worst part of it all was probably telling his parents he regretted gauging his ears in the first place.
So it seems the good doctor, and the reporters at NBC have found a way to save all of the people with stretched lobes from the future embarrassment of facing the world when this silly fad is over.
Excuse me while I slam the palm of my hand into my forehead.
Color me shocked that a news outlet wouldn’t do research into a story before going to print with it. Aside from the obviously degrading language being used towards those with stretched lobes, there’s also the fact that the article is claiming that this doctor is the first person to figure out how to “fix” the lobes, and charges quite a bit for the reconstruction. It’s ok NBC. Everyone makes mistakes.
For those of you who don’t feel that your choice of modifications is part of a fad, then kindly enjoy this image of a woman who is obviously upset with her lobes and is regretting ever having stretched them. You can see the sadness in her eyes that tell the story of how the only job she can get because of her lobes is that of a cutlery rack.
Seriously. That’s the saddest face I’ve ever seen. There’s no way I could make a mistake about that. Could I?
