Firecupping or Gigantic Ancient Chinese Medicinal Hickeys

I woke up with really bad back spasms the other morning. I decided to go to the massage place in our neighborhood for the first time. It seemed a little dicey as far as cleanliness. As far as ‘appropriateness’ it is no problem. It’s a small room with two tables open to the street. No funny business possible.

But the cat lays in there all day and the workers smoke and the idea of the linen goes against some of my OCD tendencies.

But I was desperate. The massage helped and it only cost 40 yuan for an hour (about $6.30). She suggested firecupping (details here if interested). She just showed me the globes. At the time I didn’t know that it was called fire cupping or what I was in for. I figured I didn’t have much to lose.



This was the result. My back feels better but I don’t think it’s because of the gigantic hickeys. I'll not be doing this again. Edit - The marks don't hurt.