The Body Politic Part I

Conan O'Brien (0:03)

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Grace (0:06)

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Okay, let's get started.

Sona Movsesian (0:13)

Hi Grace, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs A Fan.

Grace (0:16)

Hello there, nice to be here. Thank you for having me. How are you, Grace? I'm very good, how are you?

Conan O'Brien (0:20)

Well, lovely to meet you, and you look fantastic, you really do. Oh, thank you. And I wanna, there's so much to talk about here because it says on my little piece of paper here that you are in Bristol, England, is that correct?

Grace (0:35)

That is correct.

Conan O'Brien (0:36)

I was in London about a week and a half ago, so sorry I missed you.

Grace (0:40)

I'm sorry you missed me too.

Conan O'Brien (0:44)

She doesn't sound sorry at all. Yeah, you seem quite pleased that you dodged the serial international creep.

Now, I don't know much other than it says here that you are a body modification assistant. I know nothing about this topic. Talk to me about, I see that you have tattoos, but what does body modification include?

Grace (1:12)

So I'm actually a tattoo artist, but when I was coming up in the industry, I was a body piercer who then met a body modification artist and became their assistant. And body modification in the realm that I'm talking about would be like things like tongue splits, scarification, subdermal implants, the removal of certain things. Yeah, kind of just coming up in like the alternative scene in Plymouth where I grew up.

Being into punk music and stuff like that, I was always seeing these like heavily tattooed and pierced singers in bands and stuff like that. And it very much inspired me and it got me kind of like wanting to learn more about it. And I was always fascinated by it and I was always wanting to get certain things done. I was dying to get my tongue split since I was like probably 14, 15

Conan O'Brien (2:13)

Oh, talk to me about that. Let's start with tongue splitting because I don't know anything about that. I know that people can get a piercing on their tongue, but I didn't know about a tongue splitting. What's that?

Grace (2:24)

Is this? Can I show you?

Conan O'Brien (2:25)

Yeah.

Grace (2:26)

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien (2:27)

Oh my God! Oh, shit.

Sona Movsesian (2:30)

Oh my God. That is crazy.

Conan O'Brien (2:32)

You have a forked tongue.

Grace (2:35)

Yes, I do.

Conan O'Brien (2:36)

I can't believe a thing you're saying.

So, that's for appearance, right? That doesn't, it doesn't, well, actually, it would give your tongue more surface area. I think.

Grace (2:49)

Yeah, so like, your tongue is two separate muscles, so that's why this works so well. You can move them independently. But yeah, it makes for great, like I can pick food out of both sides of my mouth at the same time.

Conan O'Brien (3:02)

Oh my God.

Sona Movsesian (3:05)

And you can stick your tongue out at two separate people across the room.

Conan O'Brien (3:09)

Yeah.

Grace (3:10)

I definitely-

Conan O'Brien (3:11)

Good point.

Grace (3:12)

That's not cool.

Conan O'Brien (3:13)

Yes, it is. That feels like it's not cool. That's actually really cool. That's not a cool use. You know what, many times I've wanted to stick my tongue out, but I have to choose which person to do it. And they're usually on either side of a room, some distance from me.

Sona Movsesian (3:26)

Then this is the procedure for you.

Grace (3:29)

That's exactly why I got it done.

Conan O'Brien (3:30)

Does it?

There must be some ways in which it's inconvenient. Like, maybe not, if they're licking ice cream. How's it? You must taste more ice cream.

Sona Movsesian (3:43)

No, because there's not taste buds in the inside of your tongue, right? You're not getting new taste buds, are you?

Conan O'Brien (3:48)

Well, probably not.

Grace (3:50)

I taste exactly like my taste. Nothing was different apart from the fact that these two things in my mouth now move independently. But honestly, it felt very freeing to get my tongue split. Like as soon as it was done and I started moving it, I was like, oh my God, it feels like my tongue has been in a vice this whole time.

Sona Movsesian (4:08)

Did it change your speech at all?

Grace (4:10)

So I did have a slight lisp when I first got it done. And I had to kind of train myself to not have one, but it wasn't like severe or anything like that. It's kind of all dependent on the person.