Latest Piercing Rage: Tongue Splitting

[Cathryn Crawford]

Latest Piercing Rage: Tongue Splitting It's called tongue splitting and involves slicing the tongue right down the middle to create a forked look. Those who do it, call it body modification. Many others call it body mutilation.

Either way, it's not for the squeamish.

Why would anyone split his or her tongue? The Associated Press interviewed several people who did it, and there were three reasons typically cited:

The shock value is enormous. Some actually find the experience spiritual. They just like the way it looks and feels. While tongue splitting is edging up in popularity, it's still relatively uncommon. By some counts, about 2,000 people worldwide have done it, but curiosity is growing fast.

AP interviewed 19-year-old James Keen, pictured above, and asked him why he did this. "When I first saw it, I thought tongue-splitting was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life," he said. When he couldn't find a surgeon to do the deed, he enlisted a body piercer from his hometown, Scottsville, Kentucky. The cost? $500 with no anesthetic. "People are very curious about how it feels." Keen says he can move both sides of his tongue independently of the other.

What are the side effects? Infection from bacteria in the mouth is quite possible. In addition, tongue splitting almost always forces people to learn to speak all over again and typically causes a lisp that may not ever go away.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers are so outraged by the procedure they are using the power of their office to make it illegal. One such person is Illinois state Rep. David Miller from Chicago's south suburbs who has authored a bill that requires tongue-splitting to be performed only for medical reasons and only by a doctor or dentist. AP reports that the bill passed nearly unanimously in the Illinois House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate. Miller is fully aware of individual rights and personal freedom, but he told AP, "But I'm not sure the people getting this done understand the risks. We're choosing safety over cosmetics." Those who oppose the bill say it will only force people who want the procedure to go underground and that could mean unsafe conditions.

In addition to lawmakers' efforts to stop the trend before it really takes off, several branches of the armed services have banned the practice. The Air Force gave one young airman a choice: Get his tongue sewn back together or be kicked out the Air Force.

[babaloo999]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/911533/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/903731/posts

[CathyRyan]

G*d I am getting old. I just to not see this in any way shape or fashion.

[HIDEK6]

I think I'm going to get this done. What do ya'al think?

MffthwlIthhhfxwtissttspwwpefiul!

[CGASMIA68]

Great minds think alike some are just a few minutes behind

[Cathryn Crawford]

See post #13.

[Cathryn Crawford]

I'm nineteen, and I can't see it either.

BTW - completely off topic, is your screen name your real one or is it from the movie or the books?

[Cathryn Crawford]

Oh, yes, I want to sound inarticulate my whole life. That's my goal.

[PogySailor]

Just you wait. Some trial lawyer is already counting his profits from the lawsuit filed on behalf of a "victim" of Body Modification Discrimination

"You won't hire this young man because he looks like a serpent? How closed minded you are! You are a lookist!"

[Neenah]

The craze, which involves surgically splitting the tongue to make it look like a lizard's tongue, has been branded a mutilation by legislators in Illinois.

Source

[Cathryn Crawford]

Beautiful eyes. Horrible tongue.

[Paul Atreides]

Imagine having to keep that, or a tongue piercing cleaned out for the rest of your life. The whole concept is just nasty. Is it just me, or does anyone else's first impression of someone drop considerably if that person has a hoop or a little ball sticking out of their eyebrow, nostril, or lip?

[cardinal4]

Nope. Im repelled by it too. I think belly piercing is a turn off as well..

[Uncle Meat]

"You won't hire this young man because he looks like a serpent?

No,I won't hire him because he looks like a fool.

[CGASMIA68]

Horrible individual......screw the eyes...

[caisson71]

Ha, I knew someone out there was on the same thought -link. The situation begged for an un-PC comment..... LOL.

[Newbomb Turk]

Way to go DumbAss.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Take it from me - it does. I'm nineteen now, and I had my eyebrow pierced for a short period of time while I was in high school. I graduated when I was sixteen and the day I did I took out that stupid little hoop and never put it back. I decided that if I was going to be taken seriously it was time to grow up.

So I've seen both sides.

[Cathryn Crawford]

LOL - I know. But I was struck by his eyes. Nice brown eyes. Hey, I'm trying to be positive, here!

[jwalsh07]

It should be a requirement for all democrat politicians.

[Paul Atreides]

I have also seen otherwise beautiful classy women with earrings going all the way up their ears. There is something to be said for simplicity.