"Sculpting the Magnificent Male
Surgical Techniques help men to obtain better bodies"
By: Lisa Lytle, Orange County Register

Remove a few liters of hat here. Add a pair of silicone implants there. Voila! A new and improved male body.

They enter the operating room in all shapes: The amateur bodybuilder who has tried in vain to develop bigger calves; the portly man who hates his "love handles;" the mans who wants an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like chest.

Taking it off

Liposuction, a surgical technique for removing fat through a suction tube inserted under the skin, permanently gets rid of fat at the site.

And it's a technique that's overwhelming popular in California where many want the body beautiful, said Dr. Alan Gold, a spokesperson for the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, and a plastic surgeon in Long Island.

About 11,334 liposuction operations were performed on men in the US in 1990; most patients were in their 30s and 40s, according to Anne Gorman, media relations director for ht ASPRS, Which represents 97 percent of all US board-certified plastic surgeons.

"It's more popular now than five years ago, because a lot of celebrity surgery Dr. Michael Niccole of Newport Beach said adding that well-known stars such as singers Jon Bon Jovi, Andy Williams and Kenny Rodgers have had liposuction.

But it's not just a star treatment.

I've been working out seriously in the gym for 27 years and I couldn't lose my waist," said James Severance, 42, a general contractor in Westminster. "I tired to burn off my love handles by jogging and dieting, but I became too thin."

In 1987. Severance went to a plastic surgeon (not Niccole) in Newport Beach for waist liposuction.

Bradley Gibbs, 34, of Santa Ana, said liposuction worked so well for him that he would do it again in a heartbeat.

"I'm short at 5-foot-6, and stocky," said Gibbs, who owns an automotive service shop and limousine company. "I didn't want the teddy bear look - I wanted more of a V-cut body."

On May 17, Gibbs had liposuction of the abdomen, and side and back.