South Korea Introduces A Bizarre New Plastic Surgery Trend That Even Koreans Find Alarming

It is no secret that South Korea is a pilgrimage in the true sense of the word for those seeking cosmetic surgeries. The strict beauty standards that pretty much decide the life path of even ordinary citizens, coupled with advanced medical research and development, have normalized plastic surgery and other beauty treatments as part and parcel of Korean society.

But even in the context of this culture, a newly introduced cosmetic procedure has netizens scratching their heads over its apparent “insanity.” Recently, a user on the community forum theqoo posted about surgery being heavily promoted in South Korea, and it went viral with over 90,000 views at the time of writing.

| theqoo

The OP’s (original poster) post had compiled multiple ads and promotions of pupil enlarging surgeries, also dubbed as “Eye-ring Surgery.” According to some of the ads, the goal of the surgery is to achieve visually similar effects of wearing circle contact lenses by enlarging the pupil of the eye permanently.

| theqoo

Notably, circle lenses have been in vogue for a while, especially in the K-Pop scene. Idols are often seen sporting these lenses, which can potentially change the complete look of their faces.

IVE’s Wonyoung wearing circle lenses ITZY’s Yuna wearing circle lenses

The procedure involves inserting a circular silicone ring around the pupil to enlarge it. A clinic offering this procedure promoted it as the first of its kind in the world, developed through seven years of research, following which it was patented. It is also described as a “simple surgery” done on the white part of the eye without involving the pupil itself.

| theqoo | theqoo

The OP added that nobody can know about the side effects of this surgery because it was introduced less than a year ago, pointing out potential concerns. The comments, over 850 at the time of writing, largely expressed similar concerns and deemed it excessive.

| theqoo

• “Let’s just live the way we were born, please. Do human beings fear nothing?”
• “Oh dear.”
• “Just wear lenses…”
• “It didn’t turn up on Naver, though.”
• “Wow…your eyes can’t even recover naturally. What kind of bullshit is this?”
• “This is super weird…I’m glad everyone else also found it bizarre…”
• “Don’t mess with your eyes…”
• “I couldn’t even go for a LASIK laser surgery because I was scared. You’re telling me people are doing that?”