Palm reading is immensely popular in Japan, and negative readings are apparently taken very seriously. So seriously, that some women and men have gone to extreme lengths -- palm cosmetic surgery -- in order to (very hopefully) change their future. Whaaaaat?

The surgery's been around for a couple years now, but it's recently seen a spike in interest. Patients are given the option of going with the surgeon's basic palm knowledge or "customizing" their palms with hand-drawn lines. It's a short surgery -- the procedure's usually over in 10 to 15 minutes -- and patients are given the option of drawing up to five additional lines on their hands.

The most popular palm augmentation for women? The marriage line, natch. "If you don't have the marriage line, it means you will most likely not get married. So the job of the doctor is to create a marriage line," explains Takaaki Matsuoka, a plastic surgeon who's performed more than 20 of the procedures this year alone. "Sometimes the marriage line is there, but it came too early and the woman missed her chance. So we add another one."

But does all this "taking your future into your own hands" stuff work? Well ... Matsuoka isn't so sure, but he won't deny the power of positive thinking. "If people think they'll be lucky, sometimes they become lucky," he said. And plus, he adds, "Maybe changing your palm won't change your fate, but if you have that much determination to try to change it -- and are willing to endure a little pain for that chance -- maybe you can change your life."[Source]