Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

 

Michael Jackson was in the public spotlight since he was a small child. In that time, he transformed from a cute little African-American kid with a 70s afro into a thin, light-skinned man in a black wig with a comically tapered nose. His plastic surgery is so obvious that it’s the stuff of urban legend. People have long speculated that he bleached his skin for cosmetic purposes, and prescription lightening cream was even found among his effects at auction. Jackson said he suffered from the auto-immune disease vitiligo, which lightens the skin in patches. That same cream is used to treat his condition and it’s possible that once Jackson opted to lighten his skin there was no going back and trying to cover up the parts that lost pigment.
Now that we know the end of Jackson’s story (or perhaps 3/4 of it given the battle that’s about to ensue over his estate) it tugs at the heart strings to see what a cute little boy he was and how he eventually ended up – thin, pale, and finally broken by a decades-old addiction. The news of his demise and his abuse of prescription drug medication puts his eccentricity in an entirely different light. This was a man who was heavily doped out of his mind and who lost his fortune and eventually his life to drugs.
In Touch gave me this idea with a photo timeline in this week’s issue featuring Jackson as a child up until these last few months of his life. Although I’ve seen many photos of him throughout the years and knew that he changed so much it’s fascinating to see the pictures lined up in order. I’ve recreated it here with different photos. The biggest difference in Jackson’s appearance was made by his multiple nose jobs, which eventually left him with a thin pencil of a nose that looked like it was pinched. Jackson’s last plastic surgeon is said to have been “a normal guy” who wasn’t particularly strange or fame-wh*rish as far as plastic surgeons go. If he kept performing surgeries on MJ he was an enabler, though, just like many of the other people who surrounded him in his last days. It’s no wonder, because Jackson fired and distanced himself from everyone who ever told him “no.” (Source: celebitchy.com)