He knows a nose; but noes have it

When my girl friend asked me to accompany her to her very first consultation with a famous Seoul cosmetic surgeon who had re-created the faces of Korean actresses, I got very excited. "Maybe I will ask for a consultation, too, if he doesn't charge," I answered.

The doctor's office was modern and superclean. Behind his desk was a large photo of himself on TV. He examined my friend's face and suggested improvements for her nose ("We stick in a piece of silicon") and eyes ("We can cut the eyelids to open them up").

Now my turn. Looking at my asymmetrical face, he said, "We can cut your jaw off and stick it on again." On a piece of paper, he drew a face and slashed the jaw horizontally as if cutting a cake in half. "Like this," he said. "What about my nose?" I asked. "We can cut off the cartilage and stick in a piece of silicon or Gore-Tex," he said. When we asked to see sample photos of other patients, he popped photos open in his computer. We saw all the look-alikes with the same nose. We were sort of disappointed and said, "But, doctor, we want to look natural."

inescho@joongang.co.kr