Talk:Tongue splitting
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This article was nominated for deletion on 11 December 2006. The result of the discussion was Nomination withdrawn. |
It is not everywhere allowed - does this mean it's illegal? Also, do people still slit mynah birds' tongues to make them able to talk? RickK 01:20 11 Jul 2003 (UTC)
If I remember correctly, wasn't the punishment for a Byzantine to have his nose sliced off, making him ineligible to rule. Or was it both nose slicing and tongue splitting?
- Nose slicing was a punishment too, along with tongue-splitting and blinding. I forgot about that one :) Adam Bishop 13:44 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)
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[edit] Terminology
The proper term for this procedure is tongue bifurcation; moving the article accordingly. I'll also add "tongue splitting" to the definition as a synonym. — Ringbang 17:33, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Modern Tongue Bifurcation
Somebody could check this and add to the article, or just make corrections. (Spellchecked and grammar corrected by Tinga1911)
History
The first tongue bifurcation (to my best knowledge) was an Italian man, who had his tongue splitted on July 1997 (maybe on July 1996; this is little bit unclear). His dentist did the split using a scalpel and silver nitrate cauterization.
Also Dustin, a bodypierer in USA had her tongue slpitted on 1997 by herself using the tie-off method. She tied a fishing line between her existing large gauge tongue piercing and the tip of her tongue and when the fishing line became too loose it was cut and a new, tight fishing line was bonded. This is really slow and very painful (compared to the other methods).
Erik Sprague aka. The Lizardman had his tongue splitted on July 18, 1997 by an oral surgeon (Dr. Lawrence Busino) using an argon laser. A new deeper split was done on October 3, 1997. This was one of the first (he thinks he was third) modern tongue bifurcations and the first one done using a laser.
Laws
Most laws don't prohibit doing a tongue split to yourself, but there are laws that could apply to a practioner doing it to somebody else, like charges of dispensing medication without a license. Also most surgeons refuse to do tongue splitting and those willing to do it will charge a lot. These are the main reasons why so many of those wanting their tongue splitted are doing it by themselves.
In USA there are many states that don't prohibit practioners (body piercers and others non-doctors) doing tongue splitting, but there are laws that prohibit using anesthetic, a local anesthetic is not an option anywhere including USA, Canada, and all other Western countries. Tongue splitting as all surgical modifications is on the grey area, so a practioner could face charges from the procedur itself or from the use of anesthetics. Also in France and Italy it's stated that tongue splitting is illegal, so there are propably no practioners willing to do that. In United Kingdom there are laws that don't prohibit tongue splitting, but those laws could be used to charge a practioner doing tongue splitting, so the few practioners doing splitting in the UK don't advertise it. In Finland you can easily find a few practioners doing tongue splitting, because there isn't laws to charge practioners, but still there are issues, like using anesthetics so none of the practioners is willing to pull attention towards them.
Methods
The best way of doing/getting tongue bifurcation is by oral surgeon using either a laser or a scalpel, but usually that isn't an option, mostly because oral surgeons refuse to do tongue bifurcations or they charge too much for it. The next safest way is getting a well know practioner doing it. It could be hard to find either one or just too expensive so many decide to do it by themselves. This is really dangerous, but if one gets him/herself well educated on the subject, then he/she should perform very well. The most dangerous part isn't the procedure itself, it's the complications like massive bloodloss if you happen to cut one of the major blood vessels (usually the one on the middle).
In the early days, most of those doing it by themselves were using Dustin's method, a tie-off, and then cut the last tiny bit using a scalpel, a razor, a heated knife etc. This is the most safest way performed by an individual with a little knowledge of the anatomy of a human tongue. Also this method doesn't generate massive bloodloss so no sutures nor cautery is needed. The problem in tie-off is the intensive pain and the slow process, it could take two months to split one's tongue.
Nowadays many individuals are using just a scalpel and cutting their tongue from the tip to the existing large gauge tongue piercing, the piercing is there to prevent the regrowth. The minimum size for the piercing is 3.2mm (8 gauge), but many are using 4.0mm to 8.0mm piercings, allthough this doesn't prevent the regrowth fully. Mostly there isn't any complications as long as the tongue is splitted with one clean cut using a sharp unused surcigal scalpel, the bloodvessels should move out of the way, but it's not sure and not adviced to even try.
Cautery is one possibility also. It's mostly used to close the bloodvessels that possibly get cut during the scalpelling and prevent bloodloss, this can be done with any cautery pen or just with heated metal plates. A Thermal Cautery Unit is also an option but it requires a medical cautery pen or some other cautery pen which can reach heating degrees up to a thousand degrees or higher. Not to mention these tools are very expensive and not so common.
Suturing is used for closing the wounds in the each half, mostly by doctors using either a scalpel or a laser. When using a scalpel it's important to prevent the massive loss of blood. Also some underground practioners may use sutures, but it's not easy and wrongly done it will just make the healing time longer and more painful, also there could be some serious consequences, so most practioners just use cauterising if necessary. Also it's said that suturing makes more of a rounder shape and a natural look, but not a forked tongue, more like two individual tongues, but there are two opinions about this and many have agreed that the shape is mostly related to the individual's anatomy, not suturing.
sources/links
BMEzine Tongue Split faq[1]
Danny's Tongue Split Experiments[2]
An article in Youngmodders[3]
The Lizardman's Tongue Split Experiments[4]
The Modern History of Tongue Splitting[5]
I'll try to check and correct this information and the bad english (note: allready corrected and spellchecked by Tinga1911) I'm writing as soon as I have enough time (maybe tomorrow, maybe the next weekend...). I'll also try to get few pics licensed under the GPL and add more links. But if someone reads this draft you could at least comment it so I can expand it to a real article.
--Jotu 01:01, 4 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Photo?
Tongue bifurcation is not a common procedure and so an illustration would be helpful. Either a photo or a drawing, perhaps. (I know there's a template for these requests, but I can't find it). Thanks, -Willmcw 22:34, September 12, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Sources
"Most doctors will say that it affects speech, but in practice, very little (usually no) difference in speech occurs."
What evidence do you have indicating that "most" doctors "will" say this. How do you know what most doctors will say, did you ask them all or conduct a survey? I find it hard to believe that most M.D. s in the world are ignorant to the truth, assuming it is true that it does not affect speech (another unsourced claim), so please cite a source or delete the claim.
You also claim that "most" say it emhances kissing. Again, did you ask everyone or conduct a survey? Please cite the source or delete the claim.
You also claim that many states ban the practice. Could you tell us which ones so that we can verify the claim? Thank You.
[edit] Another missing source
"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.)"
Please cite a source for this claim or delete, thank you.
- I don't know about the tongue splitting, but examples of both blinding and nose cutting exist. Some of the deposed emperors around the first crusades arrived on the Princes' Islands in a rather miserable condition. --Valentinian 10:42, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
