Fish pedicure
The Yvonne Hair and Nails salon in Alexandria, Virginia offers a service where garra rufa (aka Doctor fish) nibble the dead skin off clients' feet. Proprietor John Ho claims that 5,000 customers have had the treatment so far. It costs $35 for 15 minutes and $50 for a half hour. From the Associated Press (image from CNN video):
Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries...Fish pedicure (AP), Fish pedicure video (CNN)
In addition to offering pedicures, Ho hopes to establish a network of Doctor Fish Massage franchises and is evaluating a full-body fish treatment that, among other things, could treat psoriasis and other skin ailments.
Ho spent a year and about $40,000 getting the pedicures up and running...
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I know some people find this really gross...but I remember seeing a special about this type of treatment being used by people with psoriasis, and how wonderful it was. As a person with skin problems, let me tell you, I'll try just about anything once to see if it will help. I wish this salon was within a 100 mile radius...I would totally try the fish-icure.
"Associated Press" is not a reliable source of information.
Now if they could just train large-mouth bass to perform another service for men...
open beers?
PIP_R_LAGENTA @2, Are you joking? Can't tell.
I think she meant in larger than five word groups
I've had this treatment done to me, and I didn't pay a thing for it.
All I did was dangle my feet in a lake somewhere in Northern California.
MELLOWKNEES @1, I don't have any bad calluses or skin conditions, but I'd try it just for the sensation of fish nibbling on my feet. Sounds fun and weird!
@mellowknees
Maybe you were thinking of this.
I recommend it! Nothing more refreshing than lying on the bottom below the level light reaches to, all eyes closed and being completely enveloped by a truly massive ball of hungry, writhing hagfish! It'll cure your eczema too!
o/~
I want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh mango juice
Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun!
o/~
dear anderson, larry and mister blitzer:
please please PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD get with the times and make your video site firefox 3 compatible.
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As Jabber pointed out, Boing Boing was a little ahead of the curve on this story last August, but you seem to have forgotten that posting (http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/14/fish-that-feed-on-de.html) , which had a much cooler graphic of a Chinese woman chillin' in a pool of these fish which were giving most of her epidermis the nibble treatment.
@10
Nice Red Dwarf reference!
They have the doctor fish treatments in Korea... it's really quite ticklish but quite pleasant as well.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=GeKN5G_Oi-M
They did this as part of a reward on I Survived a Japanese Gameshow.
I went to a bath in Japan that had these as one of the attractions. I'm not super ticklish, but these lil buggers tickled a ton. Feels like they're sucking your skin off. mmmm.
Many many fish are called "cleaner fish" and they man (fish?) "cleaning stations". You can watch larger fish swim up to the cleaners and pause, and a bunch of cleaner fish will nibble/eat parasites, dead skin/scales, etc.
It's a great SCUBA diver trick to try to fool the fish into thinking your hand is a fish wanting cleaning. Kinda tickles.
Eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww!
no, it's only ewwww if you eat them afterwards
The Manila Oceanarium over here in The Philippines has a foot-bath/spa with "doctor-fish" similar to the ones in this article. A 100 peso ($2) fee is required to avail of the services of the fish!
@#3,
Yep, a good fish'll do that.
Pappy always used a yank of piranhas.
At a hotel on Hainan Island, China's island off the coast of Vietnam, I had the whole body experience. The hotel had a pool of "Egyptian kissing fish", and for a few dollars my girlfriend and I immersed ourselves for half an hour.
It tickled at first but then became alarming because it seems I had a lot of food. My legs disappeared in a mass of nibbling fish and I was reminded of "Piranha". Another couple joined the pool but the fish insisted on finishing me off.
They are hungry little devils. They never really hurt, but a few times a fish was aggressive. The nibbling on the unusual parts like between the toes and behind the knees was the most bizarre.
I must say, though, that my skin has never felt better. It was like being a moulting snake.
David @5, I think that may be the kind of "not reliable" one normally meets with in conversations that start somewhere around Hume, and fetch up in the vicinity of Kant or Wittgenstein at the end of the semester.
Funkywhat, what are you on about?
Curious what it's like to do this? "My First Forbidden Fish Pedicure" http://darrengarnick.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/fishpedicurex/