Ivo Pitanguy: master of artful surgery.

• Author: Gil-Montero, Martha
• Position: Ivo Pitanguy, plastic surgeon

IT WAS EXACTLY one week before Ash Wednesday, and Rio de Janeiro was getting ready for Carnival madness. I was interviewing Professor Ivo Pitanguy in his elegant clinic on the subject of the unusual tributes he has received in his life--among them, several sambas written about him, and a character modeled on him in a popular television soap opera.

The following Sunday night, during the Carnival parade, he was to receive yet another curious tribute, this time from Estacio de Sa, a samba school in a modest neighborhood. He indicated that he was flattered and worried at the same time. "They did it rather well. I like it, it's me," he said, in reference to the gigantic head that would grace the top of one of the floats. "But, with all my public way of taking care of people--Santa Casa da Misericordia Hospital and all--I don't think the caption has the right connotation."

The theme chosen by the samba group was "Brazil, Tacky and Kitsch," and critique of the new cultural values embraced by Brazilians and their growing acquisitiveness. Pitanguy was to represent high society's extravagant consumption, as expressed by the surgeon's smiling face, several large bottles of imported "Estacio Queen" Whiskey, huge tubes of "Gringo's" Potato Chips and three words: "Champagne, Caviar, and Pitanguy." Concerned about the message this might send, the man dubbed by Time magazine as "the king of plastic surgery" wanted to suggest another line: "Pitanguy cuts off our sadness."

Accordingly, he asked a friend to be his intermediary and suggest the substitute phrase. "If they don't change it, it's OK. Everything that is culture and comes from popular manifestations is important." Then he wisely added that "you cannot demand too much" from the creators and developers of the themes of the samba schools: it is their privilege to chose their own words and symbols. His premonition was on the mark: the float designer was not at all receptive to his qualms, and, on Sunday night, the crowds filling the Sambadrome saw an eighty-minute-long, tongue-in-cheek, song-and-dance depiction of Brazilian consumerism which, among other things, poked fun at Rio's big spenders with the float captioned "Champagne, Caviar, and Pitangur."

In many ways, Rio's infatuation with luxury goods and good looks made Professor Pitanguy a likely target. However, the two mornings a week that he spends operating at a charity hospital and his well-known dedication to "cut off the sadness" of poor people who are burned, malformed or maimed reveal another side of Rio's favorite plastic surgeon.

Professor Pitanguy's private clinic opened in 1963 in the district of Botafogo. Upon entering, visitors find themselves in a manicured garden. The clinic itself occupies a house that shows extensive, tasteful remodelling. Another structure, an older mansion bought years later, now serves as an office, waiting rooms and secretarial quarters. There is a common element to both the buildings and the garden: works of art are everywhere.

"I make my whole life here," said Professor Pitanguy, still wearing his light blue surgeon's uniform and sneakers with a protective covering. "I find this room [his studio] very relaxing. I like to watch the waterfall and the little birds, and see how the...