OT: Tiger Man!

[Mark Harris]

Diana wrote:

> > Mr Smith, who has changed his name by deed poll to
> Cat Man,
> > said: "I have a collection of old tiger pelts from
> the days of hunting.
> > I want these grafted on to me. It will cost
> another $100,000 but will
> > be worth it."
> 
> Ugh, I'll have nightmares for a week!  Besides, what
> doctor would
> do this?  

I'll tell you what doctor would do this: "radical
plastic surgeon" Dr. Joe Rosen, profiled in the July
2001 Harper's! (Unfortunately the article, by Lauren
"Prozac Diary" Slater, is a very bad one.)

There is a lot of this kind of thing going around. The
Slater article mentions a man "whose single deepest
desire was to look like a lizard." The Vanity Fair
article a couple of months ago about furries (stuffed
animal enthusiasts) and plushies (people who have sex
with stuffed animals) introduced us to folks who wish
to become like plush toys or cartoon characters or
sports-team mascots, big eyes and all, via plastic
surgery. Atlantic Monthly chimed in with a piece about
extremists who amputate perfectly healthy limbs, and I
forget whether it was Esquire or GQ that ran the
highly uncomfortable study of elective castrations and
penectomies. A mad world, my masters. (Although I
hasten to add that I couldn't criticize this trend
from any kind of high platform, having plenty of
ordinary body mod myself.)

Mark R. Harris


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