Model to Undergo Plastic Surgery to Make Eyes Look Japanese

A Brazilian model is having nylon wires implanted in her eyes to give them an oriental slant.

Angela Bismarchi will lead her samba group in a contest at next month's Rio Carnival and is having the procedure to celebrate 100 years of Japanese immigration to Brazil.

It will be the 42nd time she has had plastic surgery and she is closing in on the world record of 47 held by American Cindy Jackson.

Bismarchi will dance ahead of a drum group of 300 people, hoping her sculpted beauty as a "percussion queen" will lead her samba team to winning the championship.

The 36-year-old, whose passion for plastic surgery has made her a celebrity in Brazil, said: "I always was vain. And for carnival, you have to feel especially pretty."

Bismarchi, who is 6 feet tall and promotes a lingerie collection, is married to a plastic surgeon -- he has operated on her 10 times.

She first made the headlines in 2000, when police tried to arrest her after she paraded partly nude with the Brazilian flag painted on her body.

"I became famous all over. The power of carnival is amazing," she said.

Two years later, she paraded with the face of President Lula da Silva painted across her exposed body.

Officers released her after she explained that it was a gesture to Silva's anti-hunger plan.

Bismarchi had her first cosmetic surgery in 1992 after her daughter was born. She was just 21 and had her breasts lifted.

She liked the result and became so fascinated with cosmetic surgery that her next two husbands were plastic surgeons.

This time, the theme of her samba group, Porto da Pedra, is 100 years of Japanese immigration to Brazil.