Valeria Lukyanova, the 28-year-old Ukrainian known as the “Real-Life Barbie,” has announced that surgery to remove both her nipples was a success, bringing her closer to the model of ideal beauty as imagined by toymaker Mattel.
Lukyanova started gaining a following several years ago after she posted photos of herself on the internet. She has been featured in several documentaries, including “Space Barbie,” produced by Canadian media company VICE.
Although she long claimed that breast augmentation was the only cosmetic procedure she had undergone, on Monday Lukyanova acknowledged to TV host Natasha Volok that she had opened her mind to more radical means of physical transformation.
“I have said goodbye to my nipples, thanks to amazing doctor,” Lukyanova tweeted on Wednesday, naming Andriy Nazarenko as the cosmetic surgeon who did the procedure.
On her Facebook page, Lukyanova said her next move is to permanently glue shut all her body orifices, for which she is preparing by giving up food and water, espousing a “Breatharian” diet of sunlight and air.
“I will transcend the human need to deficate [sic] and make pee,” Lukyanova wrote on her Facebook page. “Finally I can be like Superstar Barbie, best Barbie of all time, who never once used a toilet or even farted, at least not in my presence.”
As a final touch, Lukyanova hopes to have her eyelids removed with a procedure called “palpebrae clipping” and to have her knees and elbows fixed with titanium rods — as long as she can find donors willing to help with the expected $100,000 cost.
Mattel vice president Jeannie McKenzie, who oversees new products in the American Girl division, said the company is releasing a “Real-Life Barbie Barbie” to commemorate Lukyanova’s transformation. The doll will be six feet tall, covered in living tissue, and will require a lot of makeup to match the photo on the box.