The latest craze?

Picture this - I'm sitting there one lunchtime, watching the News at 1pm, as is my habit now I'm a worker from home.

Then the newsreader starts talking about Brazilian Butt Lifts, and I nearly choke on my cheese and pickle sarnie.

What, seriously?  I didn't even know such a thing existed!  Admittedly, I'm not a subscriber to Plastic Surgery Monthly or any other such publication, but even so, how did I not know about this?

I put down my sandwich, lest there be another near-choking incident while I listened to the segment, which described in graphic detail the procedure, the risks involved, and then heard the horror stories direct from the patients' mouths about what went wrong when they had this operation overseas.

It turns out that this is the most risky cosmetic procedure you can have.  Because of the size of the gluteous maximus muscles, they have large blood vessels, and the fat - which is removed from another part of the patient's body to be used to enhance the buttocks - can be accidentally injected into the wrong place and can cause all sorts of problems.

There is a risk of infection - one lady flew home from abroad with a sky-high temperature and then had to have IV antibiotics to try to cure her.

There is a risk of scarring - oh yes, unfortunately we were shown very scarred posteriors - but also, sadly, people can die from undertaking this procedure, paying the ultimate price for wanting to change the way they look.

According to this news item, there's a trend for tiny waists and massive, cartoon-like backsides which resemble two beach balls defying gravity.

This is the image some people see on social media and want to copy.  But is this worth running the risk of dying for?

No, I would vehemently argue that it isn't, and I think it's so sad that in our selfie-obsessed world people are going to such extreme measures for what is a very unrealistic and unhealthy idea of beauty, or indeed booty.