TYLER — Carmel Foster is still in jail for allegedly practicing medicine without a license, but the salon owner — accused of illegally injecting substances into women's breasts — is speaking out.
Police allege that Foster performed breast enhancements in the back room of her Tyler salon. Foster said that's not what happened at all.
"Everybody needs to come and tell the truth, and stop trying to make it seem like it was just me, and I was just kind of running around with a needle or something, because that's not the case," Foster said.
Speaking by phone from jail, Foster said there are several women in Texas and Louisiana who host what she calls "self-cosmetic parties." She said they find each other on the Internet.
"It's a group of women that come together, where you can go online and say if you want to do self-cosmetics," Foster said. "If you want to make yourself look beautiful."
Foster said at some of these parties, as many as 18 women get together and give injections to each other — not only breast injections, but injections in hips, lips, and buttocks.
"It's grown, consenting women that know what's going on," Foster said. "They know that no one is a doctor. No one's a nurse. No one's portraying themselves to be anything like that. We all... everybody knows what's up. Everyone knows it's on the black market, and it's easy to get. You just go online and buy it."
Foster said the other women involved are letting her take the rap, and she insists she never made money on the procedures.
"No! There's no money to be made," Foster said. "Listen, the only way you can make money off of it, is if you're trying to do it like, advertise it."
The woman who went to police was hospitalized for more than two weeks with built-up blood and air in her lungs. She has since gone home.
