Illegal "black market" cosmetic procedures are becoming more popular, and women are risking their lives by having someone inject silicone in their buttocks without medical training.
"Some want to fill out a bikini or a pair of jeans. Others believe a bigger bottom will bring them work as music video models or adult entertainers," the Associated Press reports. "Whatever the reason, they are seeking cheaper alternatives to plastic surgery - sometimes with deadly or disfiguring results."
Deaths connected to the illegal injections have been reported in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New York. The material commonly being injected into women's bodies is industrial silicone found at the local home improvement store.
According to the Associated Press, "an interior decorator in Mississippi faces trial in the deaths of two women who were injected at her house."
There is currently little information available about the harm the illegal procedures cause, but doctors and authorities say they are seeing botch buttocks injection more often..
There are online forums where reportedly one can set up black market procedures, which have received thousands of responses. Though the buttocks injections are most popular among women, men are also seeking to have the procedure as well, according to the Associated Press.
Dionne Stephens, an assistant professor of psychology at Florida International University who studies race, gender and sexuality in hip-hop culture, told the Associate Press celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian have curvaceous bodies that have become most attractive to women in the recent years.
The admiration for curvy body shapes is not the problem, but rather the lengths women are willing to go to create these bodies.
"It is very scary that this is happening," Stephens told the Associated Press.
Apryl Michelle Brown, 46, decided to receive the illegal injections after being teased about the shape of her butt. When a woman walked in Brown's beauty salon offering to give her the injections, she couldn't resist.
"It was just something I felt inside of me, that I felt would make me better. I just didn't want the pancake booty anymore," Brown told the Associated Press.
Brown went to the woman's house the next week to receive the injections. The area where the silicone was injected hardened, and she was in severe pain. She went to the doctor, and was informed that she was injected with industrial silicone.
Brown had surgery in 2011, caught a staph infection, and had to have both her hands and feet were amputated. Brown now uses her experience to inform women about the dangers they are in.
"I would never want anybody else to go through this, not even lose one finger, much less all their limbs," Brown told the Associated Press.
