ABSTRACT
In the last decade, parts of the cosmetic surgery industry have become globalised and somewhat borderless: surgeons train and work in multiple countries, patients travel to undertake operations, diasporic healthcare communities establish, and associated tourism industries flourish. This chapter focuses on data collected as part of an international multi-site and multi-disciplinary collaborative project exploring cosmetic surgery tourism, Sun, Sea, Sand and Silicone. It also focuses on Australians who travel to undergo cosmetic surgery in Thailand and Malaysia, Chinese who travel to South Korea and Britons who visit Spain, Poland, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. The chapter explores how cosmetic surgery tourists use social media to conduct research and then to navigate, document and narrate their experiences. At once paralleling the rise of virtual tourism' and of online health-related networks, cosmetic surgery tourism is a densely mediated phenomenon even as it is profoundly embodied.
