Most people want to look their best. For celebrities, appearance is even more important. Many famous people turn to plastic surgery as their youthful visage starts to fade, but sometimes things go horribly wrong.
Today, plastic surgery techniques have come a long way from where they were a few decades ago.
Some of the early pioneers of modern plastic surgery cut corners and their patients paid the price. It’s hard to know how to feel about some of these celebrities, most of whom clearly took risks with their bodies for simple vanity.
Here are some of the most dramatic examples of plastic surgery gone terribly wrong. It’s probably OK to feel a little sorry for these celebrities, as some of them didn’t have the easiest lives. They all suffered for beauty, and never got what they paid for.
1. Pete Burns
Pete Burns had a lifelong fascination with plastic surgery, by his own admission. Although he passed away recently, Burns spent most of his later life fighting against lip injections that were a horrendous mistake.
The lead singer and founder of the 80s pop group ‘Dead or Alive’ spent most of his fortune on repairing the lip-job gone rogue, before recovering £450,000 from Dr. Maurizio Viel via an out-of-court settlement.
Dr. Maurizio Viel had injected Pete Burns’ lips with a concoction of his own invention, which ended up being extremely toxic. As the injections spread throughout his face, he developed painful, pus-filled blisters that would explode unexpectedly.
Some of the doctors he saw thought that lip amputation was the only option, but he was able to find an Italian plastic surgeon who saved his face. Eventually, things returned to relative normality for Pete Burns, but he learned a painful lesson about experimental plastic surgeries that cost a fortune.
2. Michael Jackson
Growing up as Joe Jackson’s son in Gary, Indiana probably wasn’t easy.
It wouldn’t do justice to the physical and psychological abuse that Michael Jackson suffered to gloss over the highlights, but this ‘obituary‘ for old Joe from The Guardian does a decent job at listing his catalog of horrors.
Regardless of what ’caused’ Michael to pursue a plastic surgery program that transformed him from a dark-skinned African-American, into a, well, very light-skinned person who could best be described as ‘androgynous’, he certainly did it.
One thing that is probably simple to explain in psychological terms is the nose that Michael ended up with. His father liked to call him “big nose” when he was young, after finding out that Michael was self-conscious about it.
Curiously, Michael was also diagnosed with discoid lupus erythematosus. Dermatologist Richard Stricksaid said that he:
“could see the disease had destroyed nose cartilage, which might have explained some of Michael’s plastic surgery.”
Michael was also severely injured by fire during the production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, which forced him to receive skin grafts on his face. All that said, he probably did some of that cosmetic surgery for ‘personal’ reasons.
3. Renee Zellweger
Unlike the rest of the people on this list, Renee Zellweger may or may not have been altered surgically for cosmetic reasons. Many people think that she has, and she has been pretty touchy on the subject.
There is irony in the fact that a public personality would be offended by the scrutiny that is sure to come with fame, especially if they make their millions by appearing in feature films.
Renee Zellweger is worth around $60 million USD, and you can guess where she made the money!
So, let’s leave the question of whether or not Renee had cosmetic surgery open, and say that if she did, she was able to afford the best people for the job, and pay them well enough to keep quiet.
4. Joan Van Ark
Nothing lasts forever, except the chemicals that were apparently injected into Joan Van Ark’s face.
To be fair to the actress, she was born in the 1940s and probably hated to see what the ravages of time do to beauty. There is, of course, no way to stop the aging process. She did try, which left her with a face that probably isn’t what she bargained for.
Depending on which celebrity blog one reads, a laundry list of cosmetic procedures is alleged as the reason for Joan’s current appearance. She is also 75 years old, so we should probably cut her some slack.
5. Michaela Romanini
Why do attractive people think that jamming odd substances in their face will make them better looking?
Michaela Romanini was something akin to Italy’s Paris Hilton. Famous for being rich, and well connected to other famous people.
Then she got addicted to collagen injections or something. Whatever she going on in her head had a dramatic effect on her appearance, and now she looks like an extraterrestrial clown.
Finding out exactly what she did to herself is probably difficult, but whatever it was. It didn’t do anything to help her beauty. Hopefully Michaela Romanini’s experience with plastic surgery will act as a warning to other celebrities!
Images from Radikal.ru, i.pinimg.com, plasticsurgerypeople.com, purpleclover.com, and tomorrowoman.com. Featured image from Shutterstock.
