'One client wanted to look like a clone': Cosmetic surgeons reveal the strangest requests they've ever had

From split tongues to 'sanded-off' tattoos, cosmetic surgery doesn't stop at breast implants...

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Plastic surgeons have revealed the strangest requests they have received from patients - ranging from having wings attached to their backs to creating vampire ears and devil horns.

Tennessee surgeon Dr David Reath said one science-fiction fan wanted her belly button removed “so she could look like a clone”.

Meanwhile Dr Anthony Youn, author of The Age Fix, said he'd had ”dozens of patients call and request a consultation for wings“.

“I say no to all of these requests,” he added.

Speaking to the website Thrillist, surgeons revealed they turned down some unusual requests for being too unsafe, but a range of strange-sounding procedures can be carried out safely and effectively.

Dr Jonathan Kaplan, from San Francisco-based Pacific Heights surgery, said his speciality is removing the hole from an unwanted navel piercing. It's safe and relatively cheap, he said.

But he said he declines requests to split tongues, restore circumcised foreskins, and inject filler into the balls of women's feet to make wearing high-heels more comfortable.

Another surgeon, Dr Joseph Russo, told of how he “sanded” the chest of a man who wanted to hide a tattoo he had gotten in Las Vegas from his wife.

Dr Michael Burgdorf meanwhile removed the stretched ear skin of a man who placed a drinks can in his lobe. He named the excess pieces “James”.

Surgeon Dr Norman Rowe said a woman asked for more hair added to her bikini area as years of waxing and shaving had affected hair growth patterns. The surgeon agreed to help, and used PRP injections to fix the problem.

The unusual requests come amid a spike in cosmetic surgery. Data released by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) earlier this year revealed that a record number of adults have underwent surgery in 2015. There was a 13 per cent spike in the number of procedures carried out in 2015, at 51,140 in total.

Of those, 46,526 of the total procedures were performed on women. Breast enlargement, eyelid surgery, face and neck operations, and breast reductions were the most popular.

Men, meanwhile, were most likely to choose eyelid surgery, followed by nose jobs, breast reduction, liposuction and pinning back ears. And while men make up 9 per cent of operations in the UK, the figure has almost doubled in the past decade from 2,440 in 2005 to 4,614 in 2015.