Family That Nips & Tucks Together
This is the fourth in a CBS Evening News series on cosmetic surgery trends worldwide.
Talk about family ties: An entire family of women - Erica Termine, Danielle Termine, Rita Whelan and Joanne Termine - who've all had "the works."
Between them, they've had a face lift, a neck lift, a breast lift, an eye lift, work on their arms and liposuction of the stomach, abdomen, waist, hips and thighs.
As CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski reports, that's
, led by their matriarch, 79-year-old Grace d'Amore. She started her makeover at 75. And like every good grandma, she likes nothing better than having the whole family together.So together they went to have their procedures done.
"We were all in the same room," says d'Amore.
The number of Americans going in for, well, tune-ups, has grown about 7 percent a year over the past three years. It's no longer taboo, and much easier to get.
"Now you can throw things on your credit card, you can go to your credit union, you can be financed even at the doctor's office, so I think you're going to hear more and more of it," says 59-year-old Rita Whelan.
She had the most drastic transformation. She was nipped and tucked from a size 12 to a size 6.
"I've had a lot of work done," she says.
So why would she go through all that?
"Because I wanted to change the shape of my body," she says.
She also needed a new start after losing her husband of 39 years to cancer.
"It took a toll on me, it took a lot," she says.
"She needed a lift, she needed a renewal," says sister Joanne Termine.
"A family member understands better than anyone else why their own family members would want to change their appearance," says Dr. Sheldon Sevinor, the plastic surgeon with the family-friendly practice.
"I have had a huge increase in the numbers of families and husbands and wives who are having plastic surgery together," he says.
Asked to identify a downside of plastic surgery, Erica Termine says: "I have a 6-year-old daughter and she knows mommy had surgery to make her 'skinny.'"
So it's not if her daughter will do it, but why.
"Yeah, for nobody else but herself," she says.
Then there's the money to think about too - tens of thousands of dollars.
Asked how much they've spent, Rita Whelan says: "Oh God, I can't begin to calculate."
"She was never good with numbers," says Joanne Termine, with a laugh.
And at 30, Erica Termine, says she might not be done.
"I am thinking I may want implants," she says. "I don't know, maybe botox."
It's a type of family bonding that didn't exist even a generation ago.
So what's different?
"What's different is, years and years ago you thought about it," says Joanne. "But today you can think about it and do it."