“An absent nose is even more conspicuous than an eccentric one,” writes Maud Ellman in her 1960 survey of nasal symbolism in the West, titled—in an inspired nod to Freud—“Noses and Monotheism.” Ellman makes this observation in the context of rhinoplasty, a surgical art with ancient roots that’s enjoyed a resurgence since the late 19th century, and whose purpose, Ellman notes, is “not to make the nose invisible…” but rather to make it “conform to the shape associated with the dominant class.”