Tongue splitting is a type of body modification in which the tongue is cut centrally from its tip partway towards its base, forking the end. Most doctors will say that it affects speech, but in practice, very little (usually no) difference in speech occurs. Most who have had the procedure report that it enhances the pleasure of kissing. With a bit of practice, one learns to move the forks of the tongue
independently. In addition to being covered under laws prohibiting the unlicensed practice of medicine, tongue splitting is now explicitly illegal in some U.S. states (and banned in the U.S. military) and effectively all surgeons refuse to do it, so by necessity it is an underground practice.
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.)
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