- Blac Chyna said that the illegal silicone injections she had in her butt as a teenager could have killed her.
- "This is a regular person that's doing it," she said.
Blac Chyna has said that the illegal silicone injections she had in her butt as a teenager could have killed her.
The reality star, whose real name is Angela White, told Access Hollywood in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that she had the injections when she was 19.
She said the procedure was not performed by a licensed professional.
"This is a regular person that's doing it," she said. "They're giving whatever it is substance that they're doing and giving it to you. They're not gonna tell you, 'Hey, you know, you could possibly die.'"
According to the Food and Drug Administration, silicone injections — which the body can't break down — can lead to long-term pain, infections, scarring, permanent disfigurement, strokes, and death. For example, if silicone is injected into a blood vessel it can block blood vessels in other parts of the body (such as the lungs, heart, or brain), and starve organs of oxygen.
White said she experienced some "very scary" complications as a result of her injections.
"My rear end would get like super inflamed, and it would get really, really hard and really, really hot," she said.
The FDA states that injectable silicone can also cause a painful, hard, gravel-like substance that stays permanently beneath the skin. To stay safe, the FDA says people should "never get injectable silicone or an injectable filler as a breast filler, buttocks (butt) filler, or filler for spaces between your muscles."
In March, White revealed that she'd had breast and butt implant reductions, as well her facial fillers removed.
The FDA says that people should always work with a licensed healthcare provider that uses FDA-approved products for cosmetic treatments. Dermal filler, which the body can break down and absorb, is FDA-approved if it's used in the face or the back of the hand, but not for "large scale" parts of the body, including breasts or butt.
"If your health care provider offers a procedure using a dermal filler that is much cheaper than similar procedures using FDA-approved dermal fillers or if a product has labeling that looks strange or different than usual, beware," it states.
White's plastic surgeon, Dr. David Matlock, told Access Hollywood that he spent eight hours removing the silicon from the 34-year-old's butt, adding that she's fortunate not have suffered more serious side effects.
"The physical dangers of getting illegal fillers are many," Matlock said. "You can have infection, abbesses, sepsis. Sepsis patients can die from that."
White said that the amount of silicon removed from her butt was the equivalent of two liters of soft drink.
"You know how many CCs I took out? 1,250 CCs," she said, referring to cubic centimeters. "A 2-liter Coke bottle all in my booty."
As well as reversing a number of her cosmetic procedures, White has also decided that she now wants to be known by her birth name as opposed to Blac Chyna.
She told Forbes last week that the name change is about "getting back to myself."
"You know being in the entertainment field, everybody always calls me, 'Hey Blac Chyna, Chyna, Chyna.' Nobody ever calls me Angela," she said.
"So sometimes I would kind of like forget who I am, because it's always about the brand, brand, brand, and not the person."