Renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Rian A. Maercks melds art with philosophy in his practice for timeless beauty. Dr. Rian A. Maercks breaks the mold with his approach to his work, so to speak. Both an artist and a leading aesthetic, craniofacial, and reconstructive plastic surgeon, Maercks believes the two are interconnected. Recognized by both his peers in the industry and patients in Miami and East Hampton, the doctor with an artist’s touch spoke with Beauty News NYC about his practice, philosophy, timeless beauty and more.
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Tell me how one goes from fine art and philosophy to becoming one of the country’s best plastic surgeons? Can you tell us how art and philosophy still impact your work and practice??
It is definitely an evolution that may seem unconventional from the outside, but in hindsight, it was a natural progression. I immersed myself in fine arts as a natural progression of childish curiosity and the rewards of creating and philosophical interest developed because I was — and still am — deeply interested in the essence of beauty, form, and meaning. Philosophical training allowed me to develop analytical skills and challenge the status quo focusing my pursuits on the foundation of true understanding and focused solutions. Together the foundation of being an artist and a philosopher created a different kind of medical student that would become a different kind of resident in training and the career that followed.
I developed different techniques in breast surgery and facial surgery, even the way I use volumetric fillers was so different that in 2009, I coined the term ‘aesthetic facial balancing’ to describe the back then radical approach of high volume fillers to create subtle rejuvenated faces that I described as “unlocked beauty.”
The combination of a deeply founded intellectual framework and decades of development of aesthetic intuition founded on timeless beauty is the duality that truly makes things special at The Maercks Institute.
Q: What do timeless and natural beauty mean to you? How do you define both?
Timeless beauty transcends trends, and of course time. In my practice, it’s not about lips today or cheeks tomorrow — it’s about balance, proportion, and harmony that endures across generations. Timeless beauty is the type of beauty that requires no thought, just elicits a smile and selfless admiration, a sunset, a beautiful animal in the wild, a flower, the kind of classic car that turns the heads and captures the present attention of someone who knows nothing about cars.
Natural beauty does not mean untouched; it means unmistakably human. It is really important to understand this as with the advances in acceptance prevalence and technology in aesthetics, a non-human alternative aesthetic has been developed, accepted and honored. Breast augmentation, for example, has led to a target aesthetic of round abrupt breasts that have an emphasis on the inferior pole or bottom of the breast. This kind of result does not exist in nature. Young patients with tight skin and projecting volume in the low cheeks also do not exist in nature but are so prevalent in high society and celebrities. In facelifting the same low cheeks with tight boundaries that are produced do not exist in nature. My ethos is to always move patients more towards an individually idealized human norm and most of plastic surgery moves patients away from a human norm and towards an alternative aesthetic that could not be argued as natural or human.
In my work, these concepts guide everything. I never chase fads, I never accept new or created norms. I always focus on the concept of ‘unlocking’ the inherent human beauty in each patient, never creating a novel aesthetic. I pursue outcomes that feel like they were always meant to be.
Q: What does The Maercks Institute pride itself in? What sets it apart? What is the MAERCKS Lift?
I founded The Maercks Institute in 2009 because I thought that there were better ways to deliver aesthetic care than what I was seeing in the mainstream. On the most superficial level everything was numbers, commoditized procedures, cost competitiveness and a business minded quantity game. I knew I would never practice like this and would find a different career before doing so. I opened at inception at a high priced boutique style offering that allowed me to dedicate what I thought was appropriate time energy thought and resource to each patient. My first Cold-Subfascial Breast Augmentation was in 2010 and the reward for rethinking a standard procedure and delivering the dreams of my patients was a fire that drove me to further develop.
We pride ourselves in looking at the patient’s concerns directly, not fitting a patient into one of the procedures we have to ‘sell.’ I offer a comprehensive evaluation and a myriad of options, many of which are simply not available elsewhere. What is really important however is my interest in delivering the best experience with the safest, most powerful and natural appearing results for my patients. “Subtle but profound” is my tag line that my staff hear me saying all day.
The MAERCKS lift stands for Musculo-Aponeurotic-Elevation and Retention Check Kedge Suspension lift. It is the evolution of my applying a philosophy I call Histiocentricity to the gold standard facelifts I was originally trained in with application of modern anatomical understanding. Essentially it combines true ligamentous deep plane support with a comfort and recovery profile of a minimally invasive technique. Its design allows that “subtle but profound” to shine through. Subtle because I suspend the face the way it is naturally at the original ligaments not pulled skin stretched subcutaneous tissue or threaded or devices. Profound because of the thoughtful “kedge” technique where I use different vectors collaboratively to recreate a more supported, natural framework where beauty is unlocked. It’s really different in that it really elevates the midface which is greatly overlooked in facelifts today, creates a cohesively natural look and has most patients lunch ready in a day.
In everything I do I bring my artistic eye, philosophical & analytic brain and elite surgical training and technical expertise with the depth of my interest and heart as a human to the results I deliver.
Your documentary was somewhat groundbreaking, applying techniques to yourself and documenting it. Did you have reservations at first? What was the initial response? Are you happy with the results and response you received?
Strangely, I didn’t have any reservations. It was my first year in private practice and at the time, some of my techniques were very contra-cultural and ahead of their time. No one was injecting high volume hyaluronic acid fillers. I would use 6-10 ml in the average patient and sometimes much more. Nowadays injecting 1020 ml is not abnormal.
I was frustrated by patients asking for one or two syringes in isolated areas – without understanding that this would not change how the human brain perceives their face. One Friday, a patient refused to leave my office after we disagreed on her plan. The next morning, I woke up with an epiphany: I’ll just show people.
So I went into the office on a Saturday with my girlfriend filming and began assessing myself honestly. I had planned for 8–10 ml. I ended up injecting 35 ml, based entirely on true need — not marketing limits. The backlash from colleagues was intense. I was even forced to take the video down by a society I belonged to, who claimed it wasn’t within the standard of care. Yet the response from patients, trainees, and the international community was overwhelming. They understood it. They saw the logic and the results. It was simply ahead of its time.
I think today this video and my practices described resonate well with my sophisticated and intelligent patient population and the patients like to see me “walk the walk.”
What’s the most common request you see in your practice? And what’s the best advice you can give patients??
What my patients want — whether or not they can articulate it — is alignment. They want the person they see in the mirror to reflect the vitality and confidence they feel inside. They don’t want to look “done.” They want to look like themselves, but refreshed, empowered and re-centered.
I’m the surgeon for the woman who misses the breasts she had ten years ago, but would never consider the augmented look. For the man who wants his jawline and spirit restored, but won’t touch a traditional facelift.
My advice? Avoid chasing trends or chasing “new.” There is very little new in our field — only refinements. My techniques, though innovative, are grounded in timeless anatomy, surgical truth, and artistic principle.
Choose a provider who sees you — not just your features, but your identity, your presence, your potential. That’s where true transformation happens — not in procedures, but in understanding.
