Friday, January 3, 2014

Breast Implants: Plan For Cosmetics Industry Regulation

A national register logging every breast implant operation carried out in England is to be set up to prevent a repeat of the PIP scandal.
The Government has published provisional plans to improve the cosmetics industry in the wake of the scandal.

Nearly 50,000 British women unknowingly bought industrial-grade silicone from French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), with hundreds suffering ruptures.
The UK cosmetics industry is rapidly expanding. The industry was worth an estimated £2.3bn in 2010, and is estimated to rise to £3.6bn by 2015.

In response, Sir Bruce Keogh was commissioned to carry out a review. The Government supports many of his recommendations, including:

:: To pilot a new register to record what breast implants are used.
:: The Royal College of Surgeons will create new qualifications and standards for cosmetic surgery.
:: A clampdown on advertising to ensure no more breast implants are awarded as competition prizes or time-limited deals.
:: Legislation will ensure that surgeons have to compensate for an injuries caused.
Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter told Sky News: "For too long, the cosmetics industry has been completely unregulated and there are too many tales of women who have been exploited, and of lives ruined by rogue cosmetic firms and practitioners.

Picture of Fingernail Anatomy

Fingernail: A fingernail is produced by living skin cells in the finger. A fingernail consists of several parts including the nail plate (the visible part of the nail), the nail bed (the skin beneath the nail plate), the cuticle (the tissue that overlaps the plate and rims the base of the nail), the nail folds (the skin folds that frame and support the nail on three sides), the lunula (the whitish half-moon at the base of the nail) and the matrix (the hidden part of the nail unit under the cuticle).

Fingernails grow from the matrix. The nails are composed largely of keratin, a hardened protein (that is also in skin and hair). As new cells grow in the matrix, the older cells are pushed out, compacted and take on the familiar flattened, hardened form of the fingernail.

The average growth rate for nails is 0.1 mm each day (or 1 centimeter in 100 days). The exact rate of nail growth depends on numerous factors including the age and sex of the individual and the time of year. Fingernails generally grow faster in young people, in males, and in the summer.
Fingernails grow faster than toenails. The fingernails on the right hand of a righthanded person grow faster than those on their left hand, and vice versa.

Tattoo - Visual Art Form


Recently I read the above article which made me feel both glad and annoyed.  The piece is about the rise of tattoos into the realm of Visual Art. Considered as an underground folkloric practice for a couple of centuries, tattoos are apparently being given artistic recognition by capital A Art.  As a tattooed art curator I felt satisfied about the fact something I’ve always thought has been finally understood but, on the other hand, realizing that the Art World had to wait for tattoos to become a mainstream trend to recognize their artistic value, made me quite sick.

I got my first tattoo when I was 17. Thirteen years later I do have more than one ink…Through this period every time I got a new piece I was carefully selecting the artist and the style, with the intention of adorning my body with beautiful art, suited for me 100%. At some point I started feeling like a collector and my body my museum. And let me tell you, some of those works definitely reach the prices of some visual art I display in the exhibitions I curate.

'Baboon Syndrome': An Unusual Complication of Antibiotics

A 40-year-old man with a sore throat and fever was diagnosed with tonsillitis, and was prescribed penicillin, a common antibiotic. But several days later, the man developed a rash over his armpits, groin and buttocks — an unusual condition known