Word: pitanguy
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...European women who make vanity trips to Rio lack Senhora Gonçalves' sangfroid; they prefer to sneak away "for the carnival," returning miraculously refurbished to the astonished delight of their husbands and friends. The undisputed king of Rio's colony of cutaneous cutters is Ivo Pitanguy (pronounced pee-tahn-ghee), a theatrically handsome 44-year-old doctor who jets from his clinic in Rio to ski slopes in Europe, hotly pursued by glamorous, albeit sagging socialites. Admitting to "the largest experience in breasts in the world," Pitanguy has a small clientele on the Continent but does...
Replaced Navels. Very popular in Rio is the Pitanguy nose (cute, petite and slightly upturned) and Sophia Loren eyes (almond shaped). The latest rage is carving clefts into chins or, for those whose chins are already cleft, smoothing out the cleft. Much of Pitanguy's time is spent sculpting bustlines into more sedate proportions. "Brazil has more big breasts than anywhere else in the world," he explains. Whether the breasts are expanded or contracted, however, they remain functional after Pitanguy's alterations: milk flow is unimpaired, and nipples are normally positioned. The doctor is also known...
Such virtuosity does not come cheap. Pitanguy's work earns him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year-in a country where a first-class brain or heart surgeon can expect to earn only $50,000. But Pitanguy has demonstrated time and again that he is not greedy. He spends Wednesdays operating for free at Rio's General Hospital. In the tradition of most doctors, who soak the rich and salve the poor, Pitanguy donates his services to the maimed and the malformed, whether they can pay or not. "I'll give you a price," he told...
...Traveling expenses raise total costs for Americans to about what they would pay at home, but the pleasures of a trip to Rio (and the advantage of secrecy) give Brazil a definite edge. "One woman came here from Beverly Hills to have a wart removed," says Pitanguy, "simply because she likes to travel...
Seeking to lure even more visitors, some of Pitanguy's competitors have begun to branch out. They now offer restorative surgery for women who for reasons of their own wish to return to their virginal state. Pitanguy will not even consider such tampering. "That," he says contemptuously, "involves another ethical pattern...