Pictures of first person to undergo plastic surgery released

I have definitely been scarred for life now.

Nobody just picks up a paintbrush for the first time and creates a masterpiece. The procedure certainly has come a long way, for better or worse.

check out Gillies' RAF patients during ww2 - many made this guy look lucky .

That is so creepy, poor guy I do not want to wake up in the middle of the night to have the moonlight only gleaming from that guy's face, staring at me.

Maybe Michael Jackson should have called him

poor guy. he probably needed it so his eyes didn't dry up and fall out, seeing as he had no upper or lower lids after the war.

it seems like he didn't do it for looks purposes only.

Like any other plastic surgery, the before is definitely more natural-looking.

and thus, the hamburgler was invented

Looks like a plastercine batman mask.

Its a well creepy picture. Pretty interesting though.

An article on mirror.co.uk says Sir Harold used undamaged skin from Walter's shoulder & stretched it across his face. A technique he called 'tubed pedical.'

I think it looks like silly puddy on his face.

Yep, I'm sure he was more concerned about his appearance rather than closing his eyes. His dreams of American Idol were completely crushed.

Poor guy... his tragic accident was the predecessor to a culture of vanity operations.

His face looks a bit like silly putty.

Just think about how advanced that procedure was for that time. Although it does not look very cute, he is probably much more comfortable after being given new eyelids. Amazing!

I believe it got better, in the article didnt they mention him going back for more surgeries?

I think he prefered eye lids to a bad face, plus its an old black and white picture. His face was probably more burnt, pink, messed up than we can tell.

Im so thankful I live in this age.

How far medical science has come since then. His after appearance has a "Phantom of the Opera" look to it.

It would be interesting to know how he coped with the after effects of the surgery; not just medically but interpersonally, professionally, etc.

Not sure which one is better... Before or After

That's a lot of skin

he looked better before :-( but he looks so pleased with the surgery

Keep in mind this was back when Surrealism and Dade were just taking off.

Oh, that's hot!

That's effing scary... like horror film-scary!

thanks for the nightmares.

Yikes. He could open and close his eyes again, but he looked like he had a steak on his face. Not sure which is worse...

Yeah, I think the strange 'layered' effect doesn't work so well. Someone had to be the first.

Does anyone else think he looked better in the before shot in the left? His "horrific" injuries don't seem so bad to me...?

Medical Technology that time is not superb. I agree with the author what happened to him after the surgery. Was there any complications? How did he cope up? Did his face skin accepted the new one?

They just glued a part of another face onto his...

This is a really creepy picture.