Stevi Allen was unhappy with her body after giving birth to her son in 2019. She wanted her curves back, but that look would come at a cost — both financially and physically. Six fractured ribs and $38,000 later, the 38-year-old achieved the hourglass figure she so desired. The procedure is called “rib remodeling.” The controversial surgery sounds like something conceived in Frankenstein’s lab: three ribs on each side of the thoracic cage are partially fractured and forced to heal under the pressure of a corset. Recovering patients’ waists are cinched so tightly that they look astonishingly cartoon-like. After going under the knife, Allen estimates that her waist shrank 2-4 inches. As for the pain, she described it as “the absolute worst pain of my life.” What she wasn’t prepared for was just how painful rib remodeling would be, leaving her unable to do simple things like pick up her young son or go to work as a cosmetic tattoo artist. It took eight months for the pain to finally subside. Would she do it over again if she had the chance? While the results were great, her answer was no.
