Jackson Free Press

A Virginia spa offers fish pedicures. No, I'm not kidding. Anyway, you place your feet into a tank of warm water and allow tiny carp called garra rufa, or doctor fish, to nibble off the dead skin (which is their natural source of food), and then get a standard pedicure. You pay $35 for 15 minutes in the tank or $50 for 30 minutes. The foot treatment originated in Turkey, and it has become popular among the spa's customers. However, the spa had to comply with the health department and have separate tanks for each customer instead of one communal pool:

State regulations make no provision for regulating fish pedicures. But the county health department — which does regulate pools — required the salon to switch from a shallow, tiled communal pool that served as many as eight people to individual tanks in which the water is changed for each customer.

The communal pool also presented its own problem: At times the fish would flock to the feet of an individual with a surplus of dead skin, leaving others with a dearth of fish.

"It would sometimes be embarrassing for them but it was also really hilarious," [John] Ho said.

Diane Sawyer decided to give it a whirl live on Good Morning America, and she describes the sensation she felt as "little fish kisses" on her feet. She enjoyed it so much that she didn't want to take her feet out of the tank.

Would you do it? Sounds intriguing to me.

Previous Comments

ID

132356

Comment

I think I will pass! :-)

Author

ellen

Date

2008-07-24T08:26:39-06:00

ID

132358

Comment

This is weak. I don't expect it to do well. Why not use real fish such as pirahnas? This way they well get some real men to go get toe jobs instead of just women and girly-boys. I don't have any personal experience, but an emergency doctor friend of mines says they get multiple cases of incidents that look like male mates are stabbing their girlfriends and wives around the feet and ankle areas. Upon researching the situations, they found that as men age and grow, their toes become more bear and elepnat-like, whicj leads to surgeries of various kinds and natures to their mates.

Author

Walt

Date

2008-07-24T08:52:11-06:00

ID

132365

Comment

Piranhas, huh? Try it out and let me know how it went, Walt. LOL

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-07-24T09:13:50-06:00