I noticed while placing normal torches that you can place them on the side of tiny torches and the torches register like they are on the side of a block. I tried this with normal torches and tiny torches to see if it was just a 1.12 vanilla glitch and it didn't work. It is also not just a visual thing. I logged out and back in and it remained.

Picture:
https://puu.sh/x3gBq/15826484af.jpg