Plastic surgeons say there's an uptick in young patients wanting a to correct their "earlobe stretching" and coupled with the inevitable fact that people get older, it possibly signals the death of the once-popular body modification trend. The San Francisco Chronicle followed the journey of a reformed earlobe stretcher Coleton Tidwell, who was tired of the looks and judgments his dangling lobes garnered. Tidwell underwent an increasingly popular, 30-minute surgery to lop off his sagging lobes. The Chronicle interviewed the famed and fabled Dr. Haresh Yalamanchili, a plastic surgeon who has become the go-to ear corrector.  Yalamanchili has the sensible, almost parental explanation for the uptick in corrective surgeries, but not before engaging in a little East Village nostalgia: 

"Listen, I get it," Yalamanchili said. "I used to live in the East Village, and I've seen a lot of people do different things to their bodies. But at some point, people are going to think about how they're perceived when they enter the workforce. They need to know they have an opportunity to change."
 

For the full story, head on over to the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Alexander Abad-Santos