Sir, Drs Fleming and Flood (BDJ 2004, 198: 265) report an unusual complication of tongue piercing, in which a bifid tongue resulted. Readers might be interested to learn that deliberate tongue splitting has become one of the latest fads. The craze, which involves surgically splitting the anterior tongue to make it look like a lizard's tongue, has (perhaps sensibly) been branded a mutilation by legislators in some parts of the USA (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_780095.html).