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This Little Piggy Got Made Over

As the old saying goes, if the shoe fits, wear it. But thanks to cosmetic surgery, today’s foot can be made to fit the shoe. Cosmetic foot surgery is a relatively new phenomenon that’s grown in popularity during the past few years -- opponents blame women’s magazines -- but the number of women who’ve gone under the knife has remained the great unknown. However, a report due out from the Seattle-based American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society next month will both project that number and offer testimonials from those who suffered harmful side effects.

In most cases, it provides no medical benefit -- patients want to lose imperfections while transforming the size and shape of the foot -- and not all podiatrists perform it.

Still, when Davida Kinnes was unhappy with a white patch of skin on her pinkie toe, she had it removed. "I also had the ball bone in my toe removed so my pinky toe lays flat," explains the 25-year-old Philadelphian who paid $500.

Aside from some soreness and swelling, it wasn't painful. She walked that same day in surgical shoes. "It looked great," recalls Kinnes, whose ailment was traced to wearing a girlfriend's ill-fitting shoes. "My mom is even considering getting something done too."

Dr. Sean Ravaei, a podiatrist on Spring Garden Street who performed Kinnes' surgery, says the majority of patients are women from 15- to 45-years-old who arrive as warmer months approach. Most visit due to bunions and hammertoe, in which tight-fitting shoes cause toes to appear claw-like.)

Other patients want their toes shortened. The most popular is the second toe, which ranges in price from a few hundred to $1,000. (Insurance doesn't cover it.) Those patients usually believe their toes aren't a normal length. In that procedure, bone is cut and reset.

Another common procedure is having marks removed, like Kinnes, whose surgery was one of an estimated 1,000 performed by Ravaei. "It's pretty safe," he says, "although people should know it's not child's play."

Still, many doctors and national organizations continue to argue cosmetic foot surgery can cause problems. Richard Cantrall, executive director of the Foot and Ankle Society, warns that serious and irreversible damage can occur.

"It's not like plastic surgery [for] your face," he counters. "You don't walk on your face."—Lauren M. Wilson

More Chinks in City Armor

Though it’s embroiled in an ongoing controversy, Northeast Philly’s Chink’s Steaks isn’t the only local business with a slur in its name. State records list three others registered under "Chink," including one still operating in West Philly, according to Brian McDonald, Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson. (There’s also, according to those records, a business near Penn State named Nigger Oil and Pumping that filed for a license in 1921 but hasn’t reported any activity in decades.)

At 5864 Osage Ave., Chink's Barber Shop is a neighborhood cuttery which, though it doesn't have a telephone, is always bustling with men who stop by for conversation or to bring their sons in for buzzcuts.

Though there's not yet been any public hubbub about its name, the shop is named for a neighborhood man nicknamed "Chink" who was apparently shot to death some 14 years ago. (The steak shop is named for its late former owner who was so nicknamed because he had, according to his widow, "slanty eyes.")

There's still a large framed photo of "Chink" in the barber shop but during a reporter's recent visit, nobody seemed to know his real name. It remains unclear how he got the nickname.

But, as they do with steak-shop owner Joseph Groh, People for the Elimination of Racially Insensitive Language (PERIL) want to find an "amicable resolution" with barber shop owner Sandra Viola Nelson, whom group officials plan to contact soon. (Attempts to reach Nelson for comment were unsuccessful.)

The other two city businesses registered with "Chink" in their names, however, seem to be part of Philadelphia history. With a business filing dated 1960 and a North Philly address, Chink's Bar is now a paved parking lot for the Love Zion Baptist Church at 2525 N. 23rd St., which will soon become an educational center. The Girard Avenue site linked to Chink's Inc. is also now a parking lot.

Despite the steak-shop controversy, a man in the barber shop who didn’t want to be identified said, "We don’t feel anything racial here. The mailman is Asian and ...he uses the bathroom. ...There’s an Indian guy who fills the candy machine.

"If I walked into a business with 'nigger' on it and saw a black doll with a rope around its neck, I would feel that was racial. But it's not like that here."

Philadelphia's Human Relations Commission is still attempting to set up a meeting between PERIL -- which, since Jan. 31, has been online at www.perilmovement.com -- and Groh. Calls to Groh's attorney, Lane Fisher, went unreturned.—Helen i-lin Hwang