Despite risks, butt enhancement still the Net rage

THE DEATH of a 20-year-old British woman last month after she'd received butt-enhancement injections in an airport hotel room apparently hasn't cooled people's desire for the procedure.

The Internet remains abuzz with those looking for someone willing to inject silicone or similar substances into their flat behinds.

"It's a pretty popular procedure, but very underground, obviously," said Lt. John Walker, of Southwest Detectives. "We are confident there are underground procedures going on - even now."

While a growing number of people are seeking bigger booties, injecting silicone into the buttocks is not a safe or acceptable way to do it, said Felmont Eaves, a Charlotte, N.C.-based plastic surgeon who is president of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

"It's a back-alley thing, often done illegally with industrial fillers and things like that," Eaves said. "We don't know where people are getting these materials. They could be getting them at the hardware store."

In the U.S., plastic surgeons are performing an increasing number of butt-enhancement procedures, and women are using fat removed from other areas of their body to enhance their buttocks, Eaves said. Less common in the U.S. are butt implants.

Meanwhile, on a topix.com forum devoted to butt enhancement, "Singlelade," from Columbia, Md., this week said that she was "desparate for a little attention. having a nice face with a personality and good head game does not keep a man trust me!!"

Similarly, "Ms L." of Milwaukee, posted that she's been working out five to six days a week without desirable results, "everyone told me to just be myself, well I am myself and I love myself but that does not stop me from wanting to fill out my bikini this summer.

"Im not looking for alot just enough to say HEY!"

- Staff writer Stephanie Farr contributed to this

report.