WHEN Timmie Jean Lindsey arrived at the hospital in the spring of 1962 to remove a tattoo from her chest, she did not realize she was making history.
Surgeons Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin offered the 29-year-old mother of six the chance to have a first-of-its-kind operation to increase the size of her breasts.
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Within two hours, Timmie went from a modest B to a full C Cup at Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston, Texas.
The Boob Job – 60 this year – was born.
“I thought she just came out perfect,” she once exclaimed. They felt soft, just like real breasts.
“I don’t think I got the full results from them until I went out in public and the men on the street flirted with me.”
Since those first silicone implants, millions of women have followed their lead and gone under the knife to artificially raise their breasts.
In the UK, the average price for breast augmentation is between £ 3,500 and £ 8,000, and patients can choose from a range of smooth or textured implants filled with saline or silicone gel.
Consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon Lucy Khan told the Sun: “While augmentations remain popular, the more empowering message for today’s women is that all breast shapes and sizes are equally beautiful.”
This was not always the case. In the years following Timmie’s surgery, the dominant narrative was clear – bigger is better.
This trend was further fueled by the popularity of Nineties boys mags and shows like Baywatch, with its surgically enhanced star Pamela Anderson.
“Men’s mags from the ’90s and’ ‘Noughties reinforced this perception,'” Ms Khan added.
“Their choice of female cover models and‘ sexiest ’lists pushed this mindset while the Baywatch generation was completely influenced.
“In this era, many women who have chosen to increase their cup size have been paid or supported by male partners.”
By 1990, almost one million women worldwide had undergone breast surgery.
The celebrity trend has continued to grow. Victoria Beckham went from a natural 34A to a 34DD after becoming a mother in 1999.
She later removed them, telling Vogue in 2011 that her “torpedo bazookas” were gone.
Around this time, Katie Price shot Jordan as glamor model after having her first surgery at the age of 18, where she went from a B to a C Cup.
Since then, the 43-year-old mother of five has done 13 more breast jobs, including one to take her to 32GG.
It was during the Noughties that breast ops became mainstream.
This was mainly due to large cosmetic surgery companies offering affordable financial options, including interest-free monthly payment plans – and the popularity of surgically augmented reality TV figures such as Amy Childs, 31, and Vicky Pattison, 34.
Love Island’s Megan Barton-Hanson made three breasts ops – the first when she was just 19.
She is vocal about the need for celebrities to advance about what they have done so that they do not create unrealistic expectations.
But she also defended her right to choose what to do with her own body.
VERDAMME REPORT
Megan, 28, said: “It’s so dangerous when celebrities deny that they had breast jobs. There’s no shame in having surgery.
“I have the money and I’m doing it purely for myself. Why should I be judged?”
There were also tragedies. In 2011, Edwige Ligoneche, 53 years old from Marseille, France, died of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), an aggressive, rare type of cancer associated with PIP implants.
In June 2012, Susan Grieve, 40, a legal secretary from Musselburgh, East Lothian, died of the same disease.
A damn UK report that year found that implants from the French company Poly Implant Prosthesis (PIP) had twice the fracture rate of others.
It became known as the PIP scandal. It is estimated that more than 47,000 British women and more than 400,000 worldwide have these implants.
In 2013, the mother of five Josie Cunningham, 32, underwent a free £ 5,000 treatment on the NHS, taking her from a 32A to a 36DD after she claimed she was bullied over her naturally small breasts.
She later became a glamor model.
Following the public outcry, then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ordered a “crackdown” on taxpayer-funded enlargement surgery.
Despite the risks, more than 25,000 women in the UK undergo breast augmentation each year.
His appeal shows few signs of decline in his seventh decade, with social media and work zoom calls contributing more pressure to look good.
Ms Khan says: “The emergence of social media has accelerated it with people sharing pictures and comparing themselves to others.
“Remote sensing has also made people more aware of their appearance on video riffs, so this could be another clue to cosmetic improvements.”
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