VeeshanVault

CHICAGO, Illinois — Ears with two, three, even five piercings are ancient history. Studs in tongues and navels are, for many, no big deal. And who doesn't have a tattoo? These days, the attention-grabbing look is tongue-splitting: cutting the tongue to make it forked.

Some say the practice, still relatively uncommon but edging up in popularity, is nothing short of mutilation. Lawmakers in Illinois are considering regulations that would all but outlaw it.

And earlier this year, several branches of the armed services banned tongue-splitting. Officials at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina say one airman had the tissue in his split tongue reopened and sewn back together in February to avoid being kicked out of the service.

Those who've had their tongues split call it a body modification, and see it as an enhancement.

A few do it for shock value. Others describe the experience as spiritual. And many say they simply like how it looks and feels.

"When I first saw it, I thought tongue-splitting was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life," says James Keen, a 19-year-old from Scottsville, Kentucky, who got his tongue cut by a local body piercer in December after a surgeon declined to do it.

Keen, who now speaks with a slight lisp, says most people don't know he's had it done unless he shows them.

When he does, he demonstrates how both forks of his tongue can move independently. And it's a plus, he says, when it comes to kissing.

"People are very curious about how it feels," says Keen, whose parents gave him their blessing --- and the $500 it took to do it.

He says the cutting was done in three sessions with a scalpel heated by a blow torch and no anesthetic.

Keen's story is exactly what Illinois state Rep. David Miller, who's also a dentist, had in mind when he authored a bill requiring that tongue-splitting be done by a doctor or dentist, and only for medical reasons.

The bill passed nearly unanimously in the Illinois House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate.

Last summer, state lawmakers in Michigan narrowly defeated a similar bill. "Ultimately, it came down to an individual rights issue," says Tom Kochheiser, a spokesman for the Michigan Dental Association, which supported but did not introduce that state's unsuccessful measure. He says the association has no plans to pursue the issue further.

Miller, a Democrat from Chicago's south suburbs, says he understands the notion of personal freedom. "But I'm not sure the people getting this done understand the risks," he says. "We're choosing safety over cosmetics."

One of the main worries, Miller says, is risk of infection from bacteria in the mouth. He also says a person's speech could be affected by scar tissue and the splitting itself.

Essie Hakim, a 30-year-old New Yorker who had her tongue split by a surgeon in 1998, says she did have to learn how to speak again. But she enjoyed the process, and says she knew what she was getting into.

"I'm an adult making a decision that's not harming anybody. And I'm not harming me," says Hakim, who believes piercing and tongue-splitting are no different than plastic surgery.

Beauty, she says, is simply in the eye of the beholder.

"People get breast implants. People do body building," Hakim says. "People do so many things that are never questioned."

She and others believe the Illinois bill, if it passes, will actually do more harm by making it difficult for the most qualified people -- doctors -- to do the procedure.

Shannon Larratt, a 29-year-old Canadian who had his tongue split by a surgeon, worries that many people will simply go to "underground" parlors to have it done in unsafe conditions.

"It means only the hacks will be left doing it," says Larratt, editor of the Body Modification E-zine, a Web site he publishes from a farm in rural Ontario.

While Larratt estimates that only about 2,000 people in the Western world have split tongues, that's "almost commonplace, as heavy 'mods' go," he says, using the abbreviated term for body modification.

And curiosity about having it done is growing, says Scott Jania, a senior piercer at Progressive Piercing in Chicago.

Jania says he now gets seven to 10 inquiries a week from customers who want to know if he'll split their tongues. But, afraid he'll hurt someone or get in trouble with city regulators, he turns them down flat.

Says Jania: "My career is far too important to risk it."

I have four piercings myself, but all this weird shit with tongue splitting and using larger and larger gauge pericings until you can stick a cork through the hole makes me wonder what the fuck people are thinking.

Aslanna wrote:

I have four piercings myself, but all this weird shit with tongue splitting and using larger and larger gauge pericings until you can stick a cork through the hole makes me wonder what the fuck people are thinking.

Me and kooky finally agree on something. I have no clue either why people do stuff like that. Freaks!

kyoukan wrote:I've never been able to figure out why people mutilate their bodies. I have four piercings myself, but all this weird shit with tongue splitting and using larger and larger gauge pericings until you can stick a cork through the hole makes me wonder what the fuck people are thinking.

Other cultures do it to for whatever reason. There is some tribe of crazy people in africa where the women stretch their necks with metal rings, adding more and more rings over time until their neck is so stretched out taht it can't support their head any longer without the metal rings. And also that one group of crazies that slit a hole in their bottom lip and stretch it out until they can fit big wooden discs in it.

tounge rings and all that really dont do shit as far as oral sex is concerned

Xzion wrote:tounge rings and all that really dont do shit as far as oral sex is concerned, pretty cool asian dragon tatoo in the middle of my back but never been into peircings or any of that

kyoukan wrote:There are about 5 people on this forum where saying that would have been not funny. You are one of them. There should be laws against people as stupid as yourself questioning my intelligence level.

Xzion wrote:well with a toung ring it didnt feel that different, maybe im just strange

Xzion wrote:well with a toung ring it didnt feel that different, maybe im just strange

Lalanae wrote: I have a nose piercing. Its actually the 2nd time in 5 years I've had it done and this time I'm not taking it out.

Winnow wrote:If someone I end up with has her tongue pierced, she's getting this:

kyoukan wrote:

Winnow wrote:If someone I end up with has her tongue pierced, she's getting this:

Normally I would say "I don't think the SPCA allows you to pierce the tongues of farm animals" and then you would say "Then how did you get yours pierced?" and I would wind up looking bad. So I am just going to tell you to eat shit and die.

kyoukan wrote:

Winnow wrote:If someone I end up with has her tongue pierced, she's getting this:

Normally I would say "I don't think the SPCA allows you to pierce the tongues of farm animals" and then you would say "Then how did you get yours pierced?" and I would wind up looking bad. So I am just going to tell you to eat shit and die.

kyoukan wrote:

Winnow wrote:If someone I end up with has her tongue pierced, she's getting this:

Normally I would say "I don't think the SPCA allows you to pierce the tongues of farm animals" and then you would say "Then how did you get yours pierced?" and I would wind up looking bad. So I am just going to tell you to eat shit and die.

Brotha wrote:Thanks for the mental image Winnow...that's going to haunt my dreams. But I guess if you're willing to cyber with this (Aslanna), it's not much of a change

Mort wrote:My buddy has many attachments... He's even got one that looks like a Tynanol pill.

Pilsburry wrote:Also I have seen clips of people getting thier tongue split...someone showed me one I think it was on http://www.stileproject.com (NWS)


<font color="ff000" size="16"><b><u><p align="center">DON'T GO THERE MIIR, IT BAD.<br><br><br>YOU BOSS NO LIKEY.</font></b></u>


<p align="left">I'm not much into peircings...A little tongue ring is OK, a nose stud, belly button ring..normal earrings..maybe the eyebrow ring I can cope with.

But gauges, lip rings, nipple rings, hoops through the septum of the nose rather then a stude through the nostril...that shit is crazy.

And some of the shit is just plain gross with extreme body mods.

Tattoo's if they are small and few are ok, like little butterfly on your shoulder or whatever is cool...thorns around the arm...heart above you know where, playboy logo on your ass.....all of it..no not all of it..that's too much. Big ones are a nono...silly stuff like your Ex's name, a band, or cartoon characters make me question your intelligence. Yes, I know you can get them removed now. It's still silly.

Forthe wrote:

kyoukan wrote:

Winnow wrote:If someone I end up with has her tongue pierced, she's getting this:

Normally I would say "I don't think the SPCA allows you to pierce the tongues of farm animals" and then you would say "Then how did you get yours pierced?" and I would wind up looking bad. So I am just going to tell you to eat shit and die.

Use of this pre-emptive argument style sets a dangerous precedent. Have you been taking lessons from dumbya's foreign policy?

miir wrote:Pilsburry, I usually enjoy your little 'real life' stories because you are such a pathetic loser and you convey your pitiful existence very well in your essay-like posts.

On the other hand, your flaming skills are atrocious .
Unfunny, unoriginal, uninformed, uncreative and dull.
At least you have your retard cheering section now (Cartalas).
Keep trying, at least this one was more original than calling me 'fag'.




PS: If you still can't tell the difference between linking a NWS site and embedding a 2 meg video from a NWS site, your a bigger moron than I had originally thought.

Cartalas wrote:No sir you are the moron for opening the file at work. Does it hurt when people make fun of your sexual preference you little pillow biter.

miir wrote:PS: If you still can't tell the difference between linking a NWS site and embedding a 2 meg video from a NWS site, your a bigger moron than I had originally thought.

Besides a cartlage piercing and genital piercings it is one of the hardest piercings to heal

Fairweather Pure wrote:
The VV Secret Underground fnord had a discusssion about pre-emptive insults and unanimously ruled against them. Kyoukan's unilateral action is in direct violation of those rules and she is now considered a rogue poster. We are currently discussing the possibility of VV point sanctions against her or possibly nerfing her interest rates at the VV bank.