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    19 Grotesque Portraits Taken Directly After Plastic Surgery

    Artist Ji Yeo reveals the agony that many Koreans undergo to attain beauty. It's NSFW, as most plastic surgeries are.

    Ji Yeo's, Beauty Recovery Room, is a series of portraits taken directly after the subjects had undergone plastic surgery.

    What the photos reveal are the physical costs that many Koreans pay in adhering to the social pressures of attaining beauty.

    Specifically, a more Western look.

    Most Korean women focus on facial adjustments; making their eyes bigger and wider, minimizing their cheekbones and jaw lines, and making their noses higher and narrower.

    Ji Yeo writes, "Whereas sexiness is highly emphasized in America, in Korea, notions of childlike femininity and innocence (tied to traditional Korean values of what it means to be a woman) reign supreme."

    "More than anything, it's about how much women are willing to sacrifice in search of some measure of perfection."

    "It is a culture where men are judged on their financial balance sheet and women by their beauty. The male-dominated media endlessly reinforces its model of the ideal woman."

    In response to the photos, Ji Yeo then asked Americans in Brooklyn, New York, to mark her own body with the question, "Where should I get plastic surgery?"

    The response was as uplifting as it was distressing.

    Ji Yeo is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. To view more of her work, check out her website at http://www.jiyeo.com/.

    *And be sure to share your photo essays and ideas with our Photo Essay Editor at Gabriel.Sanchez@BuzzFeed.com

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