Skeptics love this sort of stuff!

This was taken at the First World Skeptic's Congress in Buffalo NY. The man on the right is Premanand, who demonstrated for the audience how fakirs do a variety of their tricks. He was kind enough afterwards to let me pose for this shot. No, I don't really have a pierced tongue!

Here's the punchline: About a year ago, the Vancouver Sun ran a story by a reporter about religious zealots somewhere in the Middle East (I forget the details) who impressed her with just this same trick. They ran a picture, and I could tell just by looking that they did it the same way I did!