Today, breast implants are one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures. But surprisingly, the world’s first breast implant patient, Timmie Jean Lindsey, was not concerned about the size of her chest.
In fact, following the procedure, she didn’t tell anyone about it for another 30 years.
As 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the boob job, 80-year-old great-grandmother Timmie of Houston, Texas, looks back on her experience as the first woman to have the history changing surgery.
“I had originally gone to the doctors because I was a young, recently divorced mother and had a couple of tattoos on me that I regretted,” she told Radar online.
“I had been told not to mark my body but instead I got roses and leaves tattooed over my breasts of all places!”
Little did she know that she was being eyed off as the first woman in the world to have revolutionary silicone implants.
“Unbeknownst to me they did a lot of measuring and I remember hearing them say that I would be the perfect size — they wouldn’t be too big or too small,” she said.
The mum of six agreed to the surgery in the spring of 1962 saying that some “gentle persuasion”, by surgeons Dr Frank Gerow and Dr Thomas Cronin, talked her into increasing her B cup to a C, but on one condition.
“I had never thought about my breast size and I told them I’d rather have my ears pinned back because my brother had teased me mercilessly growing up and called me Big Ears, so they did that too,” she said.
Despite being the guinea pig for the world-first surgery, Timmie says she wasn’t at all scared and that she had complete trust in the doctors.
“They put the implants underneath my tissue against my rib cage, there was a mesh frame so my flesh could grow though it and anchor them to my chest,” she explained.
And although the surgery was a success, Timmie says she didn’t tell anyone about it for 30 years.
“No one knew. I didn’t talk about it and if I did meet someone, I only spilled the beans if they asked why my boobs were so nice. Even my grandson only found out from a story in the local newspaper when he was serving abroad,” she said.
Timmie spoke about the procedure publicly for the first time on a Houston morning show, after Dr Cronin asked her to argue in favor of implants during a health scare over silicone during the 1990s.
Today, after having her breast implants for 50 years, Timmie has no regrets about the surgery and says her implants feel natural.
“I still have them in. It feels natural as they’ve settled with age. They don’t feel too hard anymore,” she said.
“I always had a real nice shape even after all my babies. I never thought anything was wrong with my old breasts!”
And her opinion on women who take breast implants too far?
“I think women who get really big ones are just looking for attention or they are doing it to make money some way or other,” she said.
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