liposculpture
(LY.poh.skulp.chur)
n.
Cosmetic surgery that attempts to shape the body by removing fat cells in areas where there is excess fat and, optionally, by adding fat cells to areas where padding is required. Also: lipo-sculpture.
Example Citation:
The reason you have those unwanted bulges is that you have excessive numbers of fat cells in those areas. Fat cells are like balloons, they go up and down depending on how much is in them. But if you remove them altogether, they cannot fill up — and that is the principle behind liposculpture.
—Anne Duggan, "Achieving the look you most desire," Sunday Mail, May 26, 2002
Earliest Citation:
Nonetheless, the afternoon session on "Superficial Syringe Liposculpture" cornered the market on gratuitous infliction of pain. This procedure is state-of-the-art liposuction: It requires either general anaesthesia or an epidural, and involves vacuuming fat out of a patient's thighs for redistribution to her face, buttocks or anywhere else that the doctor thinks needs padding.
—M. G. Lord, "Beauty Takes the Unkindest Cuts," Newsday May 5, 1991
Notes:
Today's term combines the prefix lipo-, "fat," and sculpture to produce one of the modern world's stranger art forms. It appears that people have been subjecting themselves to this procedure since the early 90s.
