Brazilian butt lifts are already a risky procedure, but experts say the demand has gotten so high, some unscrupulous and unqualified people are now trying to cash in, offering black-market butt-lift injections at discount prices.
Brazilian butt lifts are rising in popularity, with 40,000 safely performed just last year.
But of all cosmetic surgery procedures, they are also the most risky, and dozens of women have reportedly died following complications from butt lifts.
Board-certified Miami plastic surgeon Dr. Constantino Mendieta specializes in butt lifts.
“The problem is a lot of these people aren't licensed, number one, and they're not even medical professionals sometimes, and that's where it gets really scary,” Mendieta said.
Oklahoma nurse Rolanda Hutton alleges in a lawsuit that a botched procedure left her in a wheelchair — a claim her surgeon says is without merit.
“I try not to get emotional when people talk to me about this, but it's hard,” Hutton said.
Experts say the demand for BBLs has gotten so high, some unscrupulous and unqualified people are now trying to cash in, offering black-market butt-lift injections to women at discount prices.
Inside Edition’s investigative unit found a woman without a medical license advertising “advance glute enhancement needle therapy” on an Instagram account for $950.
Wearing hidden cameras, Inside Edition producers Alycia Powers and Katie Taylor met with her at an office space.
When asked to list the ingredients, the woman advertising the filler injection said they were “mainly collagen” along with “aloe vera plant, seaweed, vitamin E, fucus” and something she didn’t know how to pronounce.
“We can Google it if you want,” she said.
She said another ingredient in the syringes was coffee.
Inside Edition chief investigative correspondent Lisa Guerrero caught up with her as left for the night, and she repeatedly denied that she was performing black-market butt injections.
Inside Edition showed the video to New Jersey board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Arthur Perry.
“We're talking about a procedure that is not being done by a doctor, being done by an unlicensed professional, in an unsterile way, by someone who can't even pronounce some of the ingredients that she’s injecting into your buttocks. C'mon now, this is crazy,” Perry said.
