Tantalizing Trivia ~ The First Breast Implants

In the 1940s, during World War II, breast implants started in Japan's underground. Japanese prostitutes found that American GIs loved large breasted women and would pay more for an endowed woman. Since the majority of Japanese women are not naturally large breasted, many prostitutes had their doctors inject fluid into their breasts. The first fluids tried were saline and goat's milk. Unsuccessful, saline and milk quickly leaked into the body.

What were the other two fluids that were injected into women's breasts, leading the way for the modern day breast implant?

Were they...

• Paraffin Wax


• Vaseline


• Gelatin


• Silicone

Scroll below for the answer.

Information for our Tantalizing Trivia is from Sexy Origins & Intimate Things by Charles Panati. I picked this book up from Coco de Mer's large selection of books on erotica. For more on Coco de Mer, click on Eve's October Boutique of the Month.

Images on this page are from the film, Memoirs of a Geisha. Geisha and prostitutes were seen in a very different light in Japan.

ANSWER:

You are correct if you answered Paraffin Wax and Silicone.

Wax and silicone had mixed results. There were painful and lumpy results with the wax. However, most lasting effects were achieved with silicone. Panati says in his book that, "Determined to have 'American tits,' the girls allowed their doctors to inject Dow Corning's hottest new product, 'insert' liquid silicone, directly into their breasts. Silicone, however, had U.S. military applications, as an insulator, lubricant, and sealant, so the precious chemical was available only on the black market.

Silicone injections worked. The girls' breasts were immediately larger, still soft and pliant, and the fluid did not seem to leak away from the breast tissue into the body (like with saline and milk). By the mid-1940s industrial-grade silicone had become the hottest black-market item in Japan. Large drums of the chemical were mysteriously disappearing from U.S. military bases. The girls' profits were up, GIs were happy. Word got back to U.S. plastic surgeons that silicone was being used in Japan for cosmetic enhancement. Some American surgeons, most notably in Hollywood, began offering silicone injections to film stars and moneyed socialites."

Thus began the hot trend and controversy surrounding breast augmentation.