First modern tongue bifurcation

The concept of a split or forked tongue dates back centuries, particularly in association with the religious symbolism of snakes and dragons. The first confirmed bifurcation, however, dates to as recently as 1994, referenced in the online body-modification magazine bmezine.com, which in 1997 published the account of an anonymous Italian man who had had his tongue divided surgically by a dentist friend for cosmetic reasons. The first person to be identified by name as having had this controversial procedure - and for popularizing it internationally - was Dustin Allor (USA) in 1997; she was unaware of the 1994 claim at the time her photographs were first published in Body Play and Modern Primitives Quarterly (1997, issue 4). The most iconic owner of a bifurcated tongue is arguably Eric "The Lizardman" Sprague (USA), who in late 1997 added a split tongue to a long list of body modifications in his transformation into a human reptile.

Surgeons have warned of serious risks surrounding the splitting of the tongue, and many countries and US states have legislation in place to limit those who can perform the procedure. In England and Wales in 2018, for example, tongue splitting was ruled to be illegal if carried out by a body-modification practitioner for cosmetic reasons.