Even after 37 years, Rolling Stones fans are captivated by the tongue. No, not Mick Jagger's. Rather, the lolling, lascivious graphic designed in 1970 by artist John Pasche, whom the Stones initially paid about $120 for his efforts. The next year, the tongue became an instant rock icon after gracing the inner sleeve of the Stones' multiplatinum album Sticky Fingers.

Since then, the tongue has been licensed around the globe and has appeared on all manner of merchandise, from $3 stickers on up. In 2002, the tongue was the star of a Los Angeles fashion show, "Fashion and Licks," that featured a hot-selling underwear collection by British lingerie chain Agent Provocateur. In 2005, the Stones launched their own wine label through Celebrity Cellars and stuck the tongue on it. (A cabernet sells for $100 a bottle.) From Chrome Hearts, a New York-based jewelry concern, you can special order a Rolling Stones platinum-and-diamond bracelet for $90,000. "It's the gift that keeps on giving," says Andrei McQuillan, director of marketing and licensing at Trunk Ltd., one of scores of licensed Stones merchandisers worldwide. The tongue adorns a number of products that Trunk churns out for Stones fashionistas, including $67 children's T-shirts.

Stones management won't reveal tongue-license-related revenue, but it's clear the design accounts for millions in profits. Indeed, with a second European leg of the Stones' Bigger Bang tour set for this summer, the tongue is expected to get another boost.

While any company may apply for permission to use the logo, the Stones don't give licensees permission to slap that logo on just anything—only on items a merchandiser specializes in, whether they be surfboards or leather jackets. "You don't want a licensee to produce a wristwatch if they don't have experience producing wristwatches," says Jim Kingdon, executive vice president for corporate strategy at MusicToday, the host and administrator of the Stones' online store.

As for Pasche, he had a merchandising agreement with the Stones until 1982, then sold the copyright. He kept the original artwork, which he now has for sale. Asking price: about $400,000.

"I've had it for years and years and thought it was time to sell it," Pasche says cryptically about his reasons for putting the art on the block. "I'm trying to find the right buyer."

The 15-by-12-inch work is hand painted in black gouache with an overlay on drawing film. It is mounted and framed with a color print from the original art. Pasche is also selling the designs for four 1970s Rolling Stones tour posters, for about $170,000 a pop.

Pasche is no one-hit wonder; he has also designed posters and album art for the Who, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie, among other music acts, and spent nine years as creative director for the South Bank Centre Arts Complex in London. But Pasche is best known for the tongue. No other band logo has had such a long shelf life—or proved so versatile.

Like the Stones, the logo has changed but still endures. Mark Norton, creative director at branding agency ThinkFarm, is one of several artists called on to be tongue tweakers. For the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, Norton added a multicolored zigzag pattern down the center of the icon. The tongue grew spikes in 1994 for Voodoo Lounge. And in 2003, Norton created the triple tongue for the Licks tour. "The great success of their merchandising operation is that they have stayed with [the logo]," Pasche says. "They've been brave, in a way, to stay with it."