The most common cosmetic surgery done in the world is breast augmentation. The number of women having the procedure has doubled since 1997. Nearly 300,000 women a year in the US alone undergo this kind of surgery. Whether you’re a fan of this or not, breast augmentation has been on people’s minds for a very long time. With the revolutionary surgery techniques discovered starting in the late 19th century, Doctors have been striving to give their female patients the ‘perfect look,’ coming out with several procedures over the decades, some safe and some not. Keep reading this article and find out the complete history of what we lay people simply call “boob jobs.”

Parffin Injections of the 1890’s

It’s no secret that women with large bosoms might be regarded by many as being more attractive than if they had smaller ones. It is a sign of healthy child rearing so males are evolutionary drawn to them. Much like some women are drawn to men with big muscles.

The Industrial Revolution, starting in 1760, altered human history very much so. Some say for the better but some say the consequences on the environment have been too detrimental. It propelled methods and technologies that skyrocketed the world’s economies. New materials were produced that changed literally every facet of human life. A big one of these was medicine. Doctor’s discovered hundreds of new methods to incorporate into their fields. One of these materials was known as Parffin. Parffin is 1 part petroleum jelly and 3 parts olive oil. It was first used medically when an Australian doctor injected some into a soldier’s testicle (OUCH!!) to boost it up to a normal size. It didn’t take long for women to have doctors start injecting the substance into their breasts to make them bigger. This was most common among prostitutes and it actually worked out great. You could instantly become bigger in a single day but there were some serious side affects. Several years after the first injection the paraffin could form a huge ulcer that could cause the woman to go blind. Users had to have their breasts amputated to survive.

By the early 1900’s paraffin was not used for breast augmentation anymore. But what’s interesting is that paraffin has made somewhat of a come back. Today in countries like Turkey and India it’s used as a penis enlargement method. Yup, try to get that picture out of your head. Obviously it’s not done by licensed doctors, they know better. It’s sold on the black market.

The birth of the breast implant: 1895

The first breast implant surgery is a lot older than you probably think. It was performed in 1895 in Germany at the University of Heidelberg. It was done because a female patient had a very large benign tumor removed from one of her breasts that made her chest look asymmetrical. The surgeon’s name was Dr. Vincent Czerny. He took fat from the patient’s own hip and inserted it into her breast. This was the first surgery of its kind and it was completely done for medical reasons only.

After Dr. Vincent Czerny proved that breast implant surgery can be done safely, many doctors started doing them to whoever could afford them. Between the first and second world wars a whole slew of different substances were implanted into women’s breasts to make them bigger. Things like glass balls, beeswax, vegetable oils, silk fabric, rubber, sponges, epoxy, resin, goat’s milk and even ox cartilage. It’s no surprise why none of these materials caught on.

After World War II

There’s documented evidence that Japanese prostitutes started catering towards American soldier’s desires (big boobies) so they started injecting liquid silicone (a relatively new substance at the time) into their breasts. These women were ahead of their time. Later liquid silicone would be used in breast augmentation surgeries, but inside implants not straight injections because of the unhealthy side affects it has on the human body. The oily substance could travel to other parts of the body, most common the lymph nodes, which is nearly impossible to remove without cause severe bodily damage.

Boob Jobs in the 50’s

Large breasts were especially popular in the 1950’s because many Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren had them. After brand new materials developed for the second world war became available for civilian use, new techniques for breast augmentation surgery popped up. The two most popular materials were Ivalon sponge, made of polyvinyl and Polyethylene tape, which was clumped into a ball and encased in a cover of more Polyethylene fabric. These were used because they could be inside the human body and not kill the host. But they weren’t the best aesthetically for boobies. Also, they would eventually harden and shrink, causing the women’s breasts to look even worst.

1962: Game Changer

In 1962, Dr. Frank Gerow was carrying a plastic bag of blood when he got the idea for creating a silicone filled breast implant. He and his colleague Dr. Thomas Cronin developed the implants and tested the surgery out on a dog. Yup, a dog. A dog named Esmeralda. The surgery was successful but they had to take the implants out because Esmeralda kept breaking her stitches by licking them.

The first human woman to have these new revolutionary breast implants was a lady named Timmie Jean Lindsey. She went to Dr. Cronin and Gerow to have a chest tattoo removed when they asked her if she would be the first person to test out the new breast implant surgery. She said yes, only if they fixed her ears too, which she thought stuck out too much. Timmie had the implants her whole life with no complaints and little repercussions. When Timmie was interviewed at 80 years old about the matter she said ‘I thought they came out perfect…They felt soft and just like real breasts.”

Saline Implants

Then in 1964, the first saline implants were put into women’s breasts. Essentially they were a silicone bag filled with saline water. This gave the patients a choice of having the full saline implant inserted or have the silicone bag filled with saline after they were already in. Silicone implants were more popular than saline implants but that all changed in 1992.

FDA bans Silicone implants

In 1992, after women have been getting silicone implants for about 30 years, the FDA banned them for being too dangerous. Thousands of women got very ill because of their silicone implants. So, companies could not produce them anymore and everyone started using saline implants instead.

But then in 2006, a silicone company patented a new form of silicone in a gel form (before it was an oil). The FDA approved breast implants being filled with the silicone gel because it didn’t have the health risks the previous silicone ones did. Some women say that they prefer the silicone gel implants because they look and feel the most natural. They were designed to feel the most like human fat. You can also still get saline implants today as well.

Surgery Free Methods

Recently, breast augmentation through injections has become more popular with innovative new filler substances. One of these is called Macrolane. Macrolane was introduced in 2008 as the best alternate option to breast implant surgery. It was marketed as “the 30 minute boob job” because it claimed you could go up a full cup size with injections that only take 30-90 minutes to do. The results only last 12-18 months then you have to inject again. People also have used it for their butts and willy’s too.

Macrolane is not promoted as much anymore, though you can still find it online, because there has been a lot of controversy around it. Some guys who used it for their schlongs complain of pain when they get an erection. Radiologists have warned against using Macrolane because if the user gets breast cancer and needs chemo-therapy, the chemo will not work because of the Macrolane.

The future of boob jobs…

So, if you or someone you know is thinking about getting some work done, probably the safest route is to have breast augmentation surgery. But that won’t stop the market from trying to come up with the perfect substance people can just inject in their boobies and be done with it. A few brand new methods have popped up this decade but are not practiced widely yet. One of these new methods is transplanting fat and adult stem cells from the hip or abdomen then it is injected into the breasts to grow them 100% naturally. Science is crazy.

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