What is on Keith's tongue?
(Click thumbnail for enlargement)
Keith says:
I'm a regular Boing Boing reader. Here's something that's kinda strange, maybe you can help. Here's a link to a picture of my tongue. Perhaps other Boing Boing readers can help me out.Anyone have an idea of what these things are? Post it in the discussions area.I've had these things hanging under my tongue all my life. Only recently have they been bothering me. I've been accidentally biting them and/or getting them caught on my lower teeth. It hurts a lot when this happens. Nobody else I know has these, except for my 5-year-old son; I figure it's genetic. As an adoptee though, I have limited access to my genetic history. My birth mother says that she doesn't have these. Anyone out there have these? Anyone have them removed? I searched Gray's Anatomy online, and of course have googled, but haven't found anything on this. Any tips or information would be appreciated.
Anyway, if you could post this, cool, I'd like to hear what others have to say about it.
the latest
latest episodes
i have something similar under my tongue. my dentist's assistant pointed it out to me once. i have no idea what it is, and it doesn't bother me.
Your tongue is apparently a nudibranch in disguise. They're sneaky like that, but the rhinophores always give them away.
I have those thingies under my tongue as well, would be curious to find what they are.
I have those, too. I thought everyone did, I didn't realize some didn't.
I'll have to check with my family, now. Who else does or doesn't have them? Now I'm fascinated.
I have no idea what they are called, but I have them, and I'm 41. I've never had a problem with mine.
skin tags. I have one on my penis
Seriously. Eww.
That said, I've had those things get inflamed before, but they went back to normal (almost invisible) as soon as I stopped irritating them.
You know, you could always go to one of those... what're they called? Doctors?
I think I can safely say that I never need to see a picture of the underside of someone else's tongue, gross little appendages or not, ever again.
May I ask the obvious question?
Have you asked your doctor?
I thought everyone had these but they were usually stuck to the bottom of the tongue by saliva. Kevin's does seem to be more pronounced than most peoples and also seem to be not stuck down like most peoples'. When I was a youngster friends and I used to enjoy freaking the girls at school out by using our teeth to unstick them (whatever they are) from our tongue and make them hang over our bottom teeth.
keith has unusually large sublingual papilla.
he can probably have them frozen off at the doctor's office.
otherwise, don't worry about them. they aren't a big deal other than the annoyance. the tongue is full of peptides that inhibit infections.
I get one ever now and again. It will swell up and hurt for a couple days and then leave. I've always thought it had something to do with getting my tongue clipped.
i have these! i tried to bite one off.
DO NOT TRY TO BITE THEM OFF
#7. I thought that was a skin tag :-) I'd follow #15's advice.
I really don't expect to see this posted.
I also have these as well.
Just a hypothesis, but I think they may be where your tongue was attached to the bottom of your mouth when your body was being developed in the womb. Then they detach when you are fully formed.
Just a hypothesis.
I don't have these.
I'm surrounded by Cthulhu people!
I believe those are plica fimbriata.
do not be concerned. Everything is perfectly normal and is it should be. Continue in your normal daily routines. Specifically, there is no need to cease the use of any free sample products you may have received in the bathro.. er "mail". If your symptoms are accompanied by any scaliness or shedding of superficial digits, do not be alarmed.
Truly a question for a Doctor... or Yahoo Answers... whichever you take more seriously. My guess, pieces of your lingual frenum that probably detached from the bottom of your mouth while you were being baked in the womb. Sort of like the little nubs you get from plastic injection molds.
I'm adopted too. I don't have these, but, is there a chance you have some catfish in you? I do. MMmmmm
Levity. I hope you have a good day.
To the people that say they don't have them try (gently) scraping the bottom of your tongue on your lower teeth, especially the area of your tongue that Kevin's "dangly bits" are and see if you can loosen them.
Ok. How many people created accounts just to say they had them?
I'm all for the whole "I'm-ok-you're-ok-our-bodies-are-beautiful" stuff, but really. I need a unicorn STAT.
Tongue-Tongue is all tongue.
I am Dr. Mung-Mung.
I don't have those.
Thankyou Boing Boing for injecting this lovely image into my RSS reader. Maybe in future you could keep this kind of thing below the fold?
rhizomes. lots of little tongues on the way if you pack your mouth with earth over night.
I think what you got there is refered to as a "Photoshop"
Q Hey,ya got in Soggoth in ya?
A. umm,no, I don't think so...
Q. ya want some? (slavering leer)
1: I think this is really a sociological interesting thing: A public viewing, including diagnosis. People could open up a blog just for that. People could send in pictures of their irritations, and pther readers could comment on that. It wouldn't be any good without a doctor, though...
2: Why don't you ask a doctor? That's what they're there for and what they studied medicine for.
A personal hint: If it's symmetric, don't worry.
I had no idea, but running my tongue over my bottom teeth I found I have one.
He is spawning via parthogenesis.
Dear BoingBoing, I gashed open my leg doing yard work. Does this look like a lot of blood to you?
I'm pretty sure that this is how Kuato started out. I'd get it looked at if I were you. Unless you WANT a little psychic mouth goblin, in which case I won't judge.
Woo. I'm only a first year med student, well 2nd year as of today, but I think those fimbriae. They are extensions of the plica finbriata. I've seen pictures but yours are actually bigger than any I've seen before. Here are some pics:
http://rdoc.org.uk/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/46510549/m/7471023922
I don't have them.
It looks like miniature upside horns.
Well, once we're doing "I've got a ____ on my ____", click through here. I think this may be the final word on the "I've got a ____ on my _____" thing.
Once we're doing the "I've got a ____ on my ____" thing, click here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/10/baby-born-with-second-pen_n_106316.html
It would be tough to beat that one in the "I've got a ____ on my ____ category".
wait a minute.... aw, I see now, those are broken plastic fork tines you stuck in there just to get a picture!
Huh. Nevermind, on further inspection, it turns I do have them, albeit very small ones.
Also, looking closely at the bottom of my tongue is an experience I never want to repeat.
Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!! My eyes, my eyes.
I think I know, the tongue is a symbiont that recently joined up with humans 100,000 years ago. Those are it's atrophied legs. Best not to let it get any ideas.
The next step in human evolution?
I had a flesh tag of some sort on my tongue and clipped it off with nail clippers, which hurt incredibly bad and bled quite a bit.
Try sticking a bit of brass on them, then BB will call it a 'steampunk tongue' and you'll get 2 days exposure!
I'm not a doctor, but I've gone to one on occasion, and I'm pretty sure those are parasitic twins. Usually, the doctor removes those fairly early in a persons' life, unless they are in hidden areas like this one.
If you do have them removed, be sure to at least have a proper burial. After all, they're technically family.
;)
There are several odd things that might happen in your mouth due to a deficiency of B vitamins. I see no taste buds on the side of your tongue, and that is a sure symptom. I suggest you ask your doctor to refer you to a nutritionist. (NOT a dietician!)
My god man! I almost hurled thinking about that. Did they crunch like onions?
doesthislookinfect2u.com hasn't been registered yet....
[*]
congratulations. you're the proud host of a new kind of cymothoa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua
I question the motives of the OP. This has turned into a horridly descriptive thread and must be closed down for the sake of the children.
If they suspect that our superpowers are linked to our minor antennae, well... you know this could get ugly real quick.
Best to hide all the references to them.
Remember? That thing where we all agreed?
Kill this thread now, before we all die!
"(Click thumbnail for enlargement)"
As if!
My GOD. Somebody get us a Penguin chaser, STAT. (Yes, I said Penguin. Tired of Unicorns)
sea lice
Now I feel like a mutant because I *don't* have the crazy parasitic twins under my tongue...
Maybe because I was tongue tied?
The real question I have is whether or not dear Keith can tie a cherry stem with them, because that would be extraordinary... If not, bite away!
Unicorn please.
@ #33 - that's my favorite use for 4chan
well now laddie,don't ye be worrying t'all. I've a fresh bucket o tar on the hob and it'll be a-boil afore ye know it!. The blacksmiths lent me his tongs and farrier's pincers and the barber his best lancet. Ye just glug down this grog and we'll gag yer champers at the corners wi a bit o oak. Aye, fret not now, we'll be using the Pratchett Academy standard o surgikal precision: "To within an inch or two and accompanied by lots of hot pitch and screaming"
This has already been covered by BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/19/another-picture-of-t.html
(And a tip o' the hat to #52, who beat me to the punchline.)
me again. just checked. i kind of have 'em too, but they're more like long, thin fins or ridges than dangly bits for me. and i can't peel them off with my teeth like everyone says
Dear Poster.
this is quite seriously connected.
see an MD before doing anything.
Despite the size of them remember that your pals on the internet have the same, but on my canine teeth.
can't type
Could this be a sign of old age?
If so, perhaps Keith may see a few trips to the dermatologist in the future.
Just putting it out there.
So we can say that it was mentioned.
When in doubt, do not consult a physician or specialist. Always go straight to the people who know these things -- as Uncle Cecil calls us, the Teeming Masses.
I don't have these . . . things . . . or any trace of anything like them.
yea... those are nothing...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1273232.ece
I don't have them, you're all mutants.
I've had similar growths in my armpits. they are simply (I'm guessing) cancerous cells. Not the bad kind of cancer, just the kind where a cell or group of cells for one reason or another just keep reproducing and building on top of one another. I had the two in my armpits (both in the same location on each pit) burned off. after about a year they returned. if they are causing you problems you can get them cauterized off. if you do that, I'd be interested to see if they do grow back to see if indeed it is a similar skin growth.
Hey, thanks for the input everyone!
I had doubts that this would even be posted.
But anyway, I beleive these are the "plica fimbriata" or fimbriatae? as mentioned by a few readers above.
Thanks. I had checked with a number of online folks and couldn't find any clue about them.
That Steampunk joke was funny! But I think Cory Doctorow is the only person who cares about that stuff.
Most entertaining comments ever? Yes.
And having said that . . . could they be remora? Better call the local aquarium.
Oh, as for the Dr. recommendation, I did ask a doctor many years ago, and he said it was just some "tissue". This may come as a complete shock to everyone here, but doctors aren't always entirely cluefull. Plus, I don't want to blow the $$$ on an office visit just for this; esp. when expert advice is available for free on the internet!
Keith
Has anyone else done it yet? Oh well...
I am Keith's unusually large sublingual papilla.
That's nothing. I have five. Two big ones, as pictured, then three smaller ones.
Yes I have them. Yes, I have bitten them accidentally. Yes, I almost hurled when I did.
Mine are about as big as OP's.
No, I will not be posting pictures.
Somewhat on topic: The short Lloyd's Lunchbox, by a former coworker, Greg Ecklund
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dMnUfwVj_a0
Not for the squeamish
How about a red panda chaser?
The breathing tubes of the parasite that has replaced your tongue.
Oh, and seriously -- don't bite them or otherwise try to remove them. They're extremely sensitive.
awww, cute! do red pandas eat papillia?
OK Keith, let us know how it turns out, ok?
(he's gonna do something weird with em, you watch)
He's a damn Slan!
Kill the dirty snake!
My name is Keith and I also have had these things.
They use to get caught in my lower teeth too in weird instances.
They disappeared once after puberty, reappeared, and now have disappeared in adulthood. I'm 33 now and they've not been there for at least 5 years.
W E I R D for sure.
I always wondered what they are/were and thought everybody had them and didn't talk about them. Totally connected to nerves cause once I tried to remove one and learned it wasn't going to be easy (pain!).
OK, WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY
K
My name is Keith and I also have had these things.
They use to get caught in my lower teeth too in weird instances.
They disappeared once after puberty, reappeared, and now have disappeared in adulthood. I'm 33 now and they've not been there for at least 5 years.
W E I R D for sure.
I always wondered what they are/were and thought everybody had them and didn't talk about them. Totally connected to nerves cause once I tried to remove one and learned it wasn't going to be easy (pain!).
OK, WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY
K
What IS weird is the number of people who are freaked by a tongue.
We all,-well, pretty much all,-have one.
A tongue.
As for the dangly bits?
Catfish. definitely, I agree.
My brother had something similar. He called it a lip penis. It was just a weird, painless horn of flesh jutting from the inside of his bottom lip. Extremely odd. Went away.
A pair of nail clippers took care of mine.
I HAVE THEM TOO.
Not to worry. We will soon take over the human race and make them our love slaves.
Please do not cut or bite them off. It voids your warranty.
Clearly you should try to lance them with an exacto knife (wipe it with a napkin of course) after administering 6 or 7 shots of distilled "anesthetic"
I've heard of stalagmites, and i've heard of stalactites, but I've never heard of stalagbites. /thinking himself rather amusing indeed.
that's interesting. daniel radcliffe has an interesting tongue as well: http://tinyurl.com/6qddbf
I half expected to be Rick Rolled when I clicked the thumbnail image for enlargement.
I believe that you're a vampire and those tubes are designed to suck your victim's blood directly into your bloodstream. What, you think vampires actually digest blood?!? Of course not!
I thank the great Spaghetti Monster above for BoingBoing -- I laughed out loud at #36! Seriously, you guys rock.
I have them... always thought it had something to do with making babies somehow... ;-)
If you can catch flies with them, I would contact the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
Didn't "Max Headroom" have a bit about a video doctor doing remote diagnosis, a guy dropping his pants and turning to the TV?
It's official. We're finally 20 minutes into the future.
"I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor! I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor!"
(Family Guy)
I am the sad. I do not have mutant fleshy-horn thingies under my tongue, and I just scraped it damn near raw trying to find them. Do they wave gently, seeking algae or plankton to stuff into...well, some as yet hidden secondary maw under the tongue?
If they could move on their own, that would be the greatest thing I've seen today.
It never occurred to me to email Boing Boing in lieu of going to a doctor when I needed help with medical issues.
Fish Tongue or Lotus Seed Boob. Don't know what gives me worse nightmares
I love this thread.
DO NOT TRY TO BITE THEM OFF
I have these too, slightly smaller. If you get something on your tongue caught just nip it off with a nailclipper or something. Seriously, infection be damned.
@#54, #50 - I nearly snotted out my soda. So Ace. Awesome.
Best of luck, Keith, and I'd listen to #15.
Tentacle hentai tongue, obviously.
oh god...unicorn chaser...please...
They're hanging tongue chads.
I say pierce em. Think of all the added stimulation.
Another one in the dangly sublingual papillae club! Mine don't look like catfish whiskers, tho.
I don't have any, but I suggest you NOT to bite these.
And I see many people who leave comment here are having the same things. You guys can make a club then.
Call Professor Xavier!
#97 -- seriously! that's what metafilter is for.
After consulting with a specialist, I advise you to remove them with Adobe Photoshop.
Skin tags, I'd guess. Someone I know just got some removed. They're genetic, they usually grow in places of high friction (armpits, necks, crotch) and will always grown back, apparently.
i've got one and a half.
i bit my left one in half when i was 12. it really hurt.
Wow, I long ragged strips of thin flesh there, just as if my tongue were formed in a mold. One time a dentist told me that if I kept biting a part of my inner cheek (a nervous habit), I could give myself mouth cancer. If you keep biting them, see a doctor.
Um - how about going to a doctor instead of BoingBoing?
go to a doctor???
where's the fun in that???
Can you make them wiggle or otherwise move? Without moving your tongue otherwise? Now that would be freaky...
Can you pick up radio signals?
Try curling you rtongue back into your throat (be careful - don't swallow) and touch the tip to the nearest filling.
See if you can pick up NPR.
damn someone already beat me to the cymothoa reference.
I guess the "I should ask my doctor" route never occurred to this guy?
I have those tooooo. :333 I used to try to bite them off but yah, it hurts. my sister told me when I was in grade school that our tongues are webbed at birth and doctors cut off the strings leaving the little fleshy bits. haahhahahahah!
I have these, but longer.
To keep them out of the way I hitch them onto my middle nipple.
what?
Just wanted to say, I've got these too. :D
@15
OMG MAN!
You almost made me give my monitor & keyboard a PBR shower =D
AS A DOCTOR!!!
That's no tongue... it's a space station!
Clearly it is Nicotiana persica. Next, you can expect lovely scented white flowers to sprout.
It's probably an alien parasite.
I too have had them . . and one on my penis . . turned off one woman . . an we had condom sex for months, even after I plucked it off . . talk about bleed ! gads . . I just went and sat in the tub for hours! lol
@37
"Open your mind! Open your miiiiinnnnd...."
UNICORN CHASER OMG UGH!
My entire body is completely covered with these, and some are over an inch long. Sometimes they stand up like nipples when it's cold.
It started out with just the two under my tongue, then a few appeared deep in my armpits. More and more appeared, and eventually I was just a flapping mass of skin tags. My social life has suffered immeasurably, as you might imagine. It took a few years to get to this point, so those of you who are just starting to find these should enjoy the remaining time you have.
#132:
How YOU doin'?
ever heard of Morgellons?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons
Congratulations! You are a future missing link between now and the point where humans are able to shoot poisonous barbs from their mouths! For now you and a select few other mutants in the world have to deal with annoying skin flabs, but soon we will finally be able to defend ourselves against the otter people!! So much poison...
I don't know how helpful this is, or if someone else has mentioned it and I didn't notice, but that these are present in your son but not your mother means that perhaps they're simply a mutation residing in your Y chromosome. I'll assume further that at this point you either don't have the means or don't have the inclination to track down your father in case he's received any sort of treatment for them.
I know that doesn't help for treatment, but in case most doctors you meet won't have much experience with them you might at least know it's because your, er, stowaways are unique!
I think that is the joystick from an 80's Pac Man machine.
He took flossing to new limits?
"Herpes Zoster" is incurable, but it is treatable.
Tongue Testicles!
they're sprues.
should have been sanded off in the factory.
They are NOT
Pretty
I don't have this, but I do have what they call a "geographic tongue."
The tongue seems like an especially . . . don't know what the right word is -- maybe "biologically variable"? organ. For whatever reason, everyone's tongue looks weird and it's not at all surprising to find even more weird stuff on one's tongue.
I have always said, everything has a name and if it don't then you get to name it! Seriously, skin tags? This calls for some of that Latin we forgot all those years ago. I find this interesting, most of us seem to have some number of these yet never knew it until this brave soul posted a picture of his tongue. To the previous poster who pointed out the obvious, we all have an anus too, but I ain't interested in diagnosing anal tags, etc. Just another example of the unintended consequences of starting this website. Where will bb go next...
P.S. If these "Things" start to bug the crap outta me I will find you! Fifty damn years and now this. Screw this!
obviously mutant eyestalks. next!
Wait, did BoingBoing just become Fark? Did a website lap another website? This is the most compelling race I've ever seen.
I too was weeping softly for a unicorn chaser, until I took dustindriver's red panda chaser link (#75); now I feel much better, thank you.
I have some skin tags in the vicinity of my armpits. A couple of them bothered me when I would take swings in softball, so I got a sharp pair of scissors and just snipped them off.
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but it a little pain and blood doesn't kill you, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the doctor...
...I know exactly what those are. What happened is that when they Greys abducted you, they let a rookie imbed the little 1x4x9mm tracking probe in you. He either didn't read the installation manual correctly, and/or didn't pay attention in Grey-Human comparative anatomy class, and wound up imbedding the damn thing in your tongue instead of up your nose and/or your rectum.
...As for what can be done, you might want to contact your local MUFON chapter and ask where the local dealership is to see about whether your tongue is covered under warranty. Failing that, just tie the damn things in a knot and go impress the piercing freaks at your local goth clubs :-)
I don't have them, but my 6'6" tall friend has them.
Are you 6'6" tall too?
obviously a draconian tongue. :P
OH MY GOD
On a lark I stood in front of my bathroom mirror and checked, to prove to myself that I don't have them... and I discovered that I have ridges of these things, one ridge on the left side with four points, one ridge on the right side with three points.
I am freaking out.
join usss...become one of ussss
At 151 posts, this thread appears to still be going strong. I'm trying not to draw conclusions. Or think to much about what we are communicating to the BB staff.
considering how popular the untitled thread was, I think the BB staff already know exactly how weird we are.
check out #97 - A rare sighting of the almost extinct "hanging chad" meme, perhaps the last of its kind. Treat it gently, treat it with respect, tell your grandchildren you saw it.
I know!
He's one of those non-transformed Reptilian(tm) aliens.
Just have him drink human blood, and he'll transform the rest of the way.
I have had these on my tongue for as long as I can remember (I'm 19). I tried to pull one off when I was about 15: mistake! They are very, very sensitive.
I read the 150+ posts in this thread in awe...
Then i headed to the mirror... and guess what... i can see them, but they dont stick out...
I for one, welcome our horned tongue overlords.
also, forgot to add...
The original photo has a very king crimson vibe...
IT'S NOT A TOOMAH! /Arnold
I don't have these, but I wish I did. I'm in favor of any trait that makes me more squidish.
The more relevant question is, "Does your girlfriend like them?"
The more relevant question is, "Does your girlfriend like them?"
I think it might be Lupus
Everyone else who claims to have these needs to make a Flickr collection like, yesterday.
(#47 and #126, ftw! totally snorted my Barq's, and that stuff stings)
Well, Peter North had a good run.
Do you have anyone representing you?
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! CATFISH MAN!!!!!!!!!!
#165 — it's not Lupus.
It's photoshopped. I can tell by the pixels.
Jeepers...you don't bite those things off...get that wart freezer thingee.
Tongue Stalactites!
You are obviously satan spawn and must be killed by fire.
I know I used to have them and played with them but I don't know where they are. I think they went away.
I have one of those only smaller. Oh wait, that's my penis.
thanks, ZUZU!
I have markers for Lupus (I'm asymptomatic right now, thankfully), so I always get a chuckle when Lupus get trotted out on House. it's a sneaky bastard of a disease but it doesn't cause EVERYTHING...
plus, Lupus mouth sores are more like cankers.
I'd guess this genetic mutation is evolution. Yes, you are an evolved species, friend. Have you noticed any other "powers"? ie: resistance to UV?
I've got 'em, too, and they look pretty much like the picture Keith embedded above. I've always wondered if they were normal, but I keep forgetting to ask my dentist.
The only purpose I've found for them so far has been delighting children with my fleshy tongue fangs. Otherwise, they're pretty much just a curious body feature, like my double jointed thumbs (also good for entertaining kids).
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/threeweekslater.jpg
I also have them, sometimes as big as that, mostly smaller. And I've tried pulling them off. Ow.
#180 by Rob Beschizza
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/threeweekslater.jpg
Okay, after 180 comments, this was the best.
Thanks, Bob!
OMG... I have these.
Last year, one of them got infected and went black (like a blood blister). I tried pulling it off and biting it off, all to no avail. It hurt. A lot.
I convinced myself it was the beginning of mouth cancer, or some such serious ailment that would be the end of me.
I 'cured' myself by eating a bag of chilli Kettle chips, whose crunchiness and sharp edges at some stage broke it off, alleviating all pain and returning life to normal.
I still have one on the other side of my tongue, but it remains unaggrevated and peaceful!
i think those are gills, you might be able to breath under water!
Just kidding.. speak to your doctor, theres a chance they've seen something like this before.
The sorting hat has placed you in Slytherin.
Dude!
You're turning into an OOD!
Sorry, everyone. I just got here.
Here you go:
_______________*
______________*
________|\__|\**
________|_\-_/**
______/____**
____//____o_o_\
___//_________|
__//____\_____\
_|||_____|__.__.|
///_____/_\___/
///____/
I have raggedy ones like these, and I remember they got aggravated/activated after a long cunnilingus session years ago. They've never acted up since then.
"Cunnilingus. UR doin' it wrong"
your tongue has testicles!
BURN THE WITCH!
yay! You've evloved! Now that you have new mutant powers, what do you plan to do with them?
...Otay, now that we've all had one hell of a laugh over this guy's situation, did anyone come up with what these are, and what he probably should do about it? Other than the obvious "go see a doctor"? I'm curious about this myself!
FREAK!
Those things look best on a catfish's face.
Do they get hard when you see a cheesburger?
I has a tongue moustache :P=
I have them albeit shorter but like most of my body, mine are wiii-der.
I looked at the pic and sort of gagged. There is a reason we wear clothing and have doors on our bathrooms.
My best friend would have vomited if she saw that. She is very squeamish.
Still, I find the human body imperfect and fascinating.
(We're all bozos-I mean mutants on this bus. Honk-honk.)
-Carrie
wikipedia sez: "On either side lateral to the frenulum is a slight fold of the mucous membrane, the plica fimbriata, the free edge of which occasionally exhibits a series of fringe-like processes."
Weird, I just noticed one of these on my tounge 2 days ago for the first time in my life. I didn't think too much about it until I saw this post. Interesting.
those are the arms of the little boy growing under your tongue.
Hey there, fellow mutant!
I have no idea what those things on your tongue are, but I have a similar mouth mutation - I have two holes in the roof of my mouth that connect to my sinus/nasal cavity. They're only open some of the time, but when they are, I can pull air through them and make a bird-like whistling noise. They can be annoying sometimes when I want to create suction in my mouth.
Good luck figuring out what your tongue things are.
I can totally see where this is leading us to: in a few months a reader will send in a pic explaining "yeah, I've got these weird extra appendages on my body, and I can shoot lightning out of my fingertips. Er, anyone know what I've got?"
Followed by about 50 newly registered readers going "oh, dude, I've got totally the same problem, I thought everyone was like this!"
I do have two extra nipples and can make lightning with my hair. Does that count?
Its not a truck!
its a series of tubes!
(for #157)
Also, one of the funniest comments ever. :)
I have these exactly like yours but smaller, never bothered me.
Are you possibly from Innsmouth?
The best part of this is imagining how many people have stopped work (or whatever) to stare at their tongues. I know I did and have been chasing my kids down to look at theirs. Nothing. We are a mutant free zone... well at least for tongue tails anyway....
Hey #12 and #24, the name is Keith, not Kevin.
Come on.
dagfooyo: Sounds like you've got the remnants of a cleft palate.
This appears to be the remnants of mammal evolution. It's function is unknown, but may be related to cleaning the teeth. The "undertongue" in a Lemur does this and the relationship is noted here. "In the lemurs an under tongue or sub lingua is found, which is probably represented by the piicae fimbriatae under the human tongue, and by some morphologists is regarded as the homologue of the whole tongue of the lower vertebrates, the greater part of the mammalian tongue being then looked upon as a new formation.
A little research never hurt.
Don't try to bite them off!
Have someone else do that for you.
#137.
Actually its the opposite. If something is present in the son but not in the mother it is most probably X linked recessive because the sons do not have another x chromosome to counter the recessive gene. Y genes are mostly linked to sperm production and Y linked genetic disorders are rare because the people that have them are normally sterile and can not pass on their genes.
It's strange what I found under my tongue. There were about ten of these little things danling from my tongue
How about a cow tongue chaser?
Hmm, when did BoingBoing.net turn into Ask.MetaFilter.com? Can I get some advice on how to deal with an unruly neighbor?
I'm fairly certain you're a mutant.
You should join the X-Men, I'm sure they'll come in handy.
General reminder: Free medical advice via the Internet is usually not worth what you paid for it.
Having said that: I'll be glad to sell you an elixer which will cure this in 90% of tested subjects. (The other 10% of our patients survived; we're still hoping to improve that in the next version of the formula.) Send your order to Cure-All Simples and Herbs; please make the check out to CASH...
I have these things as well, and have on occasion had them cause me problems (catching them in my teeth, or whatnot) but mostly I've not noticed I've had them in the last 38 years.
Arms. Tiny human arms.
howdy, i just went to a walk-in clinic for the same thing yesterday. however, mine are very painful. normally mine "fringe" are not red but now they are and the weird thing is that more are popping up. they cave me a chemo wash and herpes medication even though they said it isn't herpes or cancer (???) did you ever go find out what they told you ?
I have the same things and believe they're called plica fimbriata, which means "fringe-like." Mine are as pronounced as yours and cause pain every once in a while. At times, however, they are hard to see at all and meld into tongue.
I tried to clip one off, and it bled and hurt. It stopped bleeding and didn't hurt that badly, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I've not not been able to determine what the function of the plica fimbriata is. Any ideas?
Yea, I'm 16 I just looked in the cause my mouth HURT! I thought it was on the side of my mouth at first but I looked harder and found two strings! I freaked and went staright to WebMD.. could'nt find ANYTHING there. So I did a search on google and FINALLY found this thread. Are these dangerous? Should they be removed? Should I see my dentist? Because a lot of people have them and say there fine on here :P Someone plz quote this with help!
Oh.. and they hurt REALLY bad! I would never try and bite at them.. But I did swish my mouth with peroxide.. GROSS Taste!
Wow, I have these too but thye are much smaller, for the last 12 months I have been scared I had some kind of STD but I feel much better in myself after reading this thread, and few other links from here.
I know its obvious to go to the docs etc, but it can be awkward, this thread has cheered me up no end, I even considered cutting them off myself, but thought it would be a bad idea.
Once again thanks for posting this and to everyone who posted.
**GOOGLE**
Tongue skin tags mouth oral tags.
I have these... And i'm not a mutant! ^^
My left one got inflamed, it's bigger than the other, and more sensitive... I don't know what are they and their functions... i just know that i had these my entire life... but now it's incomodating... but i won't bite them! lol
Good luck everyone!
I have the same situation as #220 and I actually went to see a doctor about this.
The doc basically confirmed that they are the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plica_fimbriata
There's no risk in getting them removed, but it is really painful.
I've got these things. Although nowhere near as pronounced. I found this thread while trying to figure out what the heck they are so I could call my doctor and say "my yaddayaddawhatever on the right side of my toungue seems inflamed..."
Pretty sure its perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. Somebody mentioned plica f-somthing...i think that's it. If they bother you I would suggest.
- eating "calmer" foods. Mine seem to get irritated after eating salty stuff (ore really spicy stuff)
- brush your teeth and use mouthwash. Seriously, this also happens to me when it's midterms or finals time and I'm up for days on end without doing anything besides studying and drinking coffee...and certainly not grooming myself or attending to any other aspect of my health.
I have them too. But they're really small. I think it looks cool. Like, a reptile's tongue or something... haha. No worries!
I have that too...just found out this afternoon...I think it looks kinda cool. Makes me look like a carp fish haha :D
well i went to my doctor cause i thought it was cancer or hiv cause trying to google red spots on tongue find you watching very bad stuff.
anyway the doctor said that is nothing to be afraid of and its very normall and common,although he didnt tell me whats the cause of these spots he asured me that everythink is ok
I have these too....
and when i went looking on the internet to see what the !@##$@ they were, this is the most information i could find in one place.
the fact that there is symmetry and that other people have it makes me feel better... and not feel bad about not seeing a doctor.
congrats keith. lets start a facebook group.
I'm pretty sure everyone has them, but they just don't stick out like that. I have them too, they just stick to my tongue and I don't ever notice them. They're also farther back in my mouth.
wow i had something like this once come outta my tounge!!! my mouth swelled up really bad too and i could barely talk. i pulled it out and i was back to normal in a day:))