$html_tag = '<img src="img.png" alt="peg leg > with a kickstand">';


##</code><code>##


my $x = SOME_HTML;

while($x =~ /\G(.*?)(<(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'|[^'">])*>)/gcs){
   do_something_with_text($1);
   do_something_with_tag($2);
}