Tongue splitting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tongue bifurcation, or tongue splitting, is a type of body modification in which the tongue is cut centrally from its tip part of the way towards its base, forking the end. Most who have had the procedure report that it enhances the pleasure of kissing. With a bit of practice, one learns to move the forks of the tongue independently. In addition to being covered under laws prohibiting the unlicensed practice of medicine, tongue splitting is now explicitly illegal in some U.S. states (and banned in the U.S. military) and effectively all surgeons refuse to do it, so by necessity it is an underground practice.
Tongue bifurcation is, however, not necessarily a surgical procedure. Self modifiers often choose to achieve a split by gradually tightening nylon bindings inserted through an existing tongue piercing over a long period of time.
It was also used as a punishment in the Byzantine Empire. When an emperor was overthrown (as happened frequently), he often had his tongue split, according to the tradition that such a mutilation made an emperor ineligible to rule again. (Alternate punishments were slicing off the nose, or blinding.)
[edit] In popular culture
Hitomi Kanehara's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Hebi ni Piasu (A Pierced Snake, English title Snakes and Earrings) tells the story of a young Japanese woman whose exploits in sex and body modification involve an endeavour to have her tongue bifurcated.
The September 19th, 2003 episode of the FOX television series Boston Public involved a group of students who had undertaken tongue bifurcation. The school's administration took a negative stance on the practice.
