MTV Pimps its Tongues

Mmm, tasty

Pimped-out tongue statutes with artistic touches (one tipped with a gargoyle, another doused in exterritorial green, another bedazzled and named "Say hello to my little friend") were red-carpet fixtures when superstars mingled at the recent MTV Latin America awards.

Paulina Rubio, the Mexican bombshell singer with flaxen curls, won a golden beaded tongue, Lengua Aprisionada, designed by artist Angel Delgado, and Kudai, a Chilean pop-rock group, won a spiky black tongue, Lengua espinosa designed by artist, Vicente Rojo Cama after being voted Fashionistas by the audience at the Oct. 18 awards in Mexico City.

For this year’s awards, MTV invited artists to twist the typical pink tongue statutes given to winners to their creative liking. Twelve artists, mostly from Mexico, were chosen by the director of Feria México Arte Contemporáneo and Mexico City officials to design the tongues.

The tongues with artistic dashes turned out far more interesting and far less phallic than the traditional pink statutes. One tongue included a peach, blue and white floral trim, another was put in a glass case with plants. Add a dash of social awareness and they’re even more tasty. (The tongues were designed under the human rights slogan, Libera tu lengua, or Free your Tongue.)

MTV bought the two statues that graced the fingertips of Ms. Rubio and Kudai and the others were auctioned off on the site Mercado Libre. The auction closed Oct. 25. The most-coveted tongue rang up a $5,000 bid; the lowest went for $400. An MTV spokeswoman did not know which spicy tongue brought in the most cash. --Janine Zeitlin