Justin Jedlica was 18 years old when he underwent his first surgery, just four days after the birthday that gave him the freedom to decide about his own body.
Since then, this man from Poughkeepsie, New York, hasn’t stopped. Rhinoplasty, chest, shoulder, biceps, triceps, buttock, cheek, and lip implants: two decades later, the tally reached nearly 1,000 procedures, with spending exceeding a million dollars.
His 1,000th surgery was historic: eight leg implants placed at the same time, a procedure no one in the world had attempted before.
He was inspired as a teenager by watching shows about the rich and famous, and ended up appearing on television himself, on Botched and Hooked On The Look.
But behind the body sculpted like a plastic doll remained an uncomfortable confession: even after all that money invested in becoming perfect, he still couldn’t feel that anyone loved him for who he really is beneath so much surgery.
