Man who 'transformed himself into a lizard' reveals horrifying details about body modification procedures
Whether you're driving your other half mad with wacky late night pillow talk or having a deep chat about reincarnation, we've all discussed what animal we would be if the opportunity arose.
But Erik Sprague hasn't just hypothesised this - he's actually gone the whole hog and completely transformed himself into a lizard, even going as far as splitting his tongue in half, sharpening his teeth and inking himself in green scaly tattoos.
You've got to give it to him, as he really has gone all out on his mission to become 'The Lizardman'.
He has had a number of horrifying body modifications over the last three decades to achieve his eccentric goal, which all started after he became 'obsessed' with shows like Godzilla.
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During his appearance on This Morning on Friday (28 June), he chatted with hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary about how he reimagined himself as a reptile.
"I became a fan of the way reptiles cross all cultures and history. No matter where you go, there is either a tale of a lizard man or a reptilian," Sprague, 52, said.
"You have the serpent in the garden of Eden. Reptiles occupy a very special place in human consciousness and as an artist, it was something that I felt like I could exploit."
Hammond herself admitted that Sprague's appearance had 'taken her breath away' when he first appeared on screen, while he joked that he's quite used to 'stunning people into silence' with his lizard look.
"I very often cause people to pause and do double takes," he told the presenters of the ITV show. "I’m not proud of it but I have caused a couple of traffic accidents over the years. Fortunately no-one was seriously hurt, as I'm aware of."
Sprague then went on to discuss - in gory detail - the long list of tweaks he has had done while on his journey of transforming himself.
Sprague explained that he decided to undergo tongue bifurcation to split it in half in the 90s, claiming that he was something of a guinea pig for the doctor who performed it on him as he was the 'first' person in the world to have it done.
He said: "This was back in 1997, at the time he [the doctor] only charged me the cost of his use in the surgical theatre, which was about $600 [£474] at the time.
"I could taste and smell my own burning tongue as the laser went through it. The swelling was so severe that it took about a week for the swelling to go down to the point where I could speak or eat normally."
Hilariously, Hammond then asked what his wife Meghan thinks of his split tongue - to which he responded: "I often say my wife has plenty of complaints, but my tongue is not one of them."
Enough said on that topic - so let's move on to how he was left 'hallucinating' and 'vomiting' from the agony of getting implants inserted into his forehead to create a row of rigid bumps.
Sprague somehow got through the procedure - which involved having 'teflon subdermally grafted to his skull to create the implants over his eyes' - without any anaesthetic, so it's no surprise he was left out of sorts.
He explained: "The procedure took about six hours, it was done without anaesthetic and, as a result, it was the only time in my life that I vomited and hallucinated as a result of pain. You have got to suffer for your art."
The Lizardman also got his teeth filed down to points, which forced him to have to relearn to talk like himself again with the assistance of a speech pathologist as he was stuck with a lisp due to the dental work.
Despite all the pain, funny looks and procedures he has endured, Sprague says turning himself into a reptile has 'changed his life' and that he is 'very thankful for it'.
But like us all, he still has his down days and admits that sometimes rude comments can get to him.
Sprague added: "Sometimes I'm going to have a bad day, and if I think I can't meet the negativity with positivity then I will want to stay home.
"I also feel I am in a position where people remember when they meet me but it's hard for me to remember everybody I meet, so it's on me to always have a good interaction, I feel like there is a bit of pressure there."
Topics: Health, Animals, Weird, US News, This Morning
Olivia Burke