Ordinance to outlaw tongue splitting

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Vigo County is currently looking to rewrite the entire ordinance that covers tattoos, body piercings and other procedures.

One particular procedure happening at a few area tattoo parlors has health officials upset.

Devin Feller likes to express himself with tattoos and piercing. He also has something that many people have never seen before: His tongue is split in two.

"Once it cuts in it just feels cold because you don't have that much feeling on the inside of your tongue," Feller said. "Afterwards, I didn't have that much problem with it. You can take ibupfofen to reduce swelling and everything like that. I didn't have problems with swelling all that much."

Currently, tongue splitting is legal at Vigo County tattoo and piercing shops, but that could soon change.

"We view that as a surgical procedure. We don't really feel that it is safe to be done in a tattoo shop," Megan Bland with the Vigo County Health Department said. "It's just one of those things that we don't feel comfortable allowing those to do it when they are not licensed medical doctors."

"I can't exactly write this off to my health insurance and have them pay for this. Its not really a medical procedure."