In the 1990s, thanks to hip-hop videos, Americans found themselves introduced to the beauty of a big backside. From that point forward, large buttocks have become a fixture in both popular and rap culture. Now, a large backside and skinny waist are the standard of beauty that all women are expected to uphold. The pressure for a Kim Kardashian-esque behind is so severe that women go to great lengths to replicate it, resorting to black market buttocks injections. But these injections are dangerous and a bigger behind is not worth the potential cost to women’s bodies.
Instances of black market plastic surgery have swelled in recent years. More and more women are turning to black market injections to fix their behinds. The premise of black market buttocks injections is inherently dangerous — it involves injecting free flowing silicone into the body. The procedure is hazardous, especially when done by an untrained professional which is often the case, because silicone isn’t meant to flow through the human body. Consequently, the injections almost always result in blood clots and infection.
Worse still, most of the time black market injections are not even made of actual silicone. Some of these practitioners have been known to inject their patients with over-the-counter mineral oil and car oil. The notorious transgender body doctor Onea Ron Morris, also known as the Duchess, is known for injecting her patients with Fix-A-Flat, a car tire solution, and then sealing the site with glue. She was arrested in 2011 for practicing medicine without a license.
Blood clots are minor when compared to what really happens to women’s bodies after these injections. Clients are plagued with painful infections post-injection. Only a few weeks after the procedure, their backsides turn shades of purple and blue with grotesque sores and often collapse into themselves, beginning to rot. Other clients have died from blood clots formed in the lungs, and the death rate from these injections is on the rise. In recent years, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York and Nevada have all reported buttocks injection-related deaths.
While state law enforcement agencies are cracking down, arrests of black market doctors aren’t enough. The only way to resolve the issue is to make women feel comfortable in their own skin by promoting positive body image and abolishing standards of beauty. The reason women turn to these surgeries is not because they want them, but rather they feel like they need to have them. Apryl Michelle Brown received black market injections because she’d been told her whole life that her behind was as flat as a pancake. Feeling self conscious, Brown decided to undergo the procedure. The injections gave Brown a staph infection that spread throughout her entire body and ultimately necessitated the amputation of her arms and legs. In order to keep women from heading down the same path as Brown, the pressure placed on women to alter their bodies must be lifted. No woman should have to alter her appearance to fit unrealistic standards.
Lena Rawley is a staff columnist. Email her at [email protected].
