"Getting Skin Deep With Plastic Surgeon Nikolas Chugay"
By: Dan Gregory

Nips and tucks sure aren't what they used to be. Plastic surgery - once relegated to the hush hush facelift that stretched Aunt Tilda's wrinkled prune face tighter than a state fair balloon - has advanced to a world of pec implants, collagen injections, and even penis enlargement. Everything that God didn't give you can now be yours.

Cosmetic surgeon Dr. Nikolas Chugay - who has performed 23,000 surgeries in 23 years of practice - says one-third of his patients are men, and 25% of those are gay.

Ultrasonic liposculpture, which actually melts away your love handles, is one of the most common procedures for gay men, Chugay says. This new procedure liquefies fat cells with ultrasonic waves before removing them, reducing both bruising and recovery time. "It's a very comfortable procedure," he explains. "Most people are back to work in two to three days."

After years of women adding to the top half of their hourglass figures, it was only a matter of time before men busted into the silicone valley of surgically-enhanced chests.

"We Make them into Junior Schwarzeneggers," says Chugay of the men who undergo pectoral augmentation. A solid, silicone synthetic is placed under the pectoralis muscle through a 2.5 centimeter incision in the armpit. Because the implant is not a liquid or a gel, there's no danger of leakage of spreading. "It's very soft," he says of the implant. "It feels exactly like the pectoral muscle."

Shaped differently, the same type of implant is used for calf augmentation - and butt implants. "It gives somebody more of that bubble-butt effect," offers the good doctor, who developed the procedure and published it in the American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery.

But what does it feel like to - literally - have a piece of plastic in you ass? "It's pretty comfortable, because the fuller portion of the implant is higher up." Chugay admits that the first week or two is a little painful until the body adapts to the fact that there's an implant under the gluteus muscle.

Something else that guys, both gay and straight, are having done is penis enlargement surgery. To make it thicker, fat from the abdomen is injected into the shaft. To lengthen it, a small incision is made in the lower abdomen just above the base of the penis. Then the penile suspensory ligament, which attaches the base of the penis to the pubic bone, is severed. This drops the penis down and forward, exposing the inch or so of the shaft that is normally hidden inside the body.

The downside to this procedure us just that: your manhood will get just as hard, but your erection will have a more downward angle. And no, hair won't grow on your palms, but it will grow on the newly-exposed section of the shaft. Half of the fat injected to make it thicker will also be absorbed by the body, requiring an additional procedure a year down the line to fluff it back up.

But men, ever-focused on the size of their equipment, are ecstatic about the procedure. "People like to look better and feel better," Chugay says. "Sometimes with penis enlargement, we'll give somebody one extra inch, which is not a huge amount, but to them it's a significant change.

"Even with nasal surgery, it might be a very minor modification, but in their mind it was an impediment that held them back and kept them from realizing their full potential. It's amazing how much effects the mind has on us."

Occasionally, what the patient has in mind to change about their appearance is simply unattainable. "If someone is a perfectionist and has maybe had two, three nose jobs and yet they want a little more improvement," Chugay says, "that's when I tell them, ‘I think you have a good result. There's nothing more I can do for you.'"

"It's important to have respect for the body," he adds. "A lot of patients get into trouble because they want immediate, dramatic results and some doctors are stupid enough to attempt to give them those results. You have to work with the body."

That includes taking precautions against infection and bleeding. "The general health of the patient is important. People that have high bold pressure, or are heavy smokers, heavy drinkers, or heavy aspirin takers tend to bleed more," Chugay warns. Scarring is also different from person to person. "Some scar better that others. It's hereditary."

Quite a few of Chugay's patients are HIV-positive, and although they make great candidates for cosmetic surgery, there are added risks which require more care to be taken. "Someone who's HIV-positive may take longer to heal," he says. "And they may be a little bit more prone to develop infection."

Chugay also does quite a bit of transsexual surgery - adding breasts, shaving the Adam's apple, and feminizing the face with smaller nose, more prominent cheekbones, and liposculpture of the neck.

For those thinking of having a little "work" done, Chugay recommends looking at before and after pictures, finding an experienced doctor, and talking to patients who have had similar procedures performed.

Chugay is such a fan of plastic surgery that he's even gone under the knife himself. "I have had a facelift, I had my eyes done, and I had liposculpture of my neck," he admits.

"I like beauty," he says regarding his decision to become a cosmetic surgeon. "When I went to medical school and I was studying obstetrics and internal medicine, I didn't like any of it. Then I was in Miami at Jackson Memorial Hospital and there was a famous Chief of Plastic Surgery who was very dramatic and colorful and very artistic and I said, ‘This is what I want to be.'"

Why endure feeling self-conscious about your imperfections? As Chugay observes, "In an hour's time with rhinoplasty surgery, you accomplish more that in ten years of psychotherapy trying to accept your nose. You can just change it and be done with it."

Beauty is ours for the asking.

Chugay has offices in Beverly hills, Long Beach, and Orange County. For more information call 800.660.8507.