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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."
-- CNN |
