US health officials in New Jersey are hunting for a bogus plastic surgeon who attempted to give customers more rounded bottoms using plumbers’ filling materials.

The Daily Mail reports that six women who visited the 'cowboy' cosmetic surgeon were given injections of non-medical silicone in an attempt to create a ‘Jennifer Lopez-style’ bottom.

Some of the women developed abscesses and others developed bottoms that reportedly looked like ‘moonscapes’, with lumps and bumps and craters. The women who visited the emergency departments of local hospitals were given antibiotics to counter the effects of the contaminated silicone.

Health officials said they believed the materials used as cosmetic filler injections contained silicone, petroleum jelly and hardware-grade filler. The material is used by plumbers to seal leaks round sinks and bathtubs.

New Jersey Health Department epidemiologist Dr Tina Tan said:

'What we've been hearing from the hospitals is that these women are presented with deep tissue infections and skin infections. Abscesses form in some cases.’

The bottom-enhancing procedures were carried out either in the patients’ homes or at hotels in the Newark area of New Jersey.

Bottom enhancing surgery is becoming increasingly popular among women who would like to emulate the curves of celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé. Cosmetic fillers known as dermal fillers are used and moulded to give a more rounded effect, although fat injections using fat from the patient’s own body can also be used.

In December 2009, 38-year-old former Miss Argentine, Solange Magnano, died in the quest for a more shapely bottom after undergoing the cosmetic surgery procedure gluteoplasty, which involves having implants inserted into the buttocks.

The procedure is considered to be fairly safe, but Ms Magnano developed acute respiratory failure following surgery and died from a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot on the lungs – several days later.

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