"Dr Fish" - Revenge of the Sashimi

[kurohinge1]

Turkish "Dr fish" nibble at Japanese market

HAKONE, Japan - The Japanese are known for eating more fish than any other nation in the world -- now fish may have a chance to get their own back.

In a beauty treatment imported from Turkey, bathers at "Dr Fish", a new spa in the hot spring resort of Hakone, dip their feet into a warm pool teeming with fish that nibble away at dead skin and bacteria.

The toothless Kangal fish, just a few centimetres long, are touted as a cure for skin conditions such as psoriasis in Turkey, but for the hygiene-obsessed Japanese it's more about getting their feet squeaky clean.

The experience is ticklish, rather than painful, bathers say.

"They're eating the bad stuff and it makes me feel better," Shingo Kamiya, a 45-year-old customer at the spa said as the fish swarmed around his bare toes.

[Charles]

Now this, I could go for. I spend an inordinate amount of time whittling, acid etching, and grinding the calluses off my poor feet.

[kamome]

Turkish "Dr fish" nibble at Japanese market

If you happen to believe in reincarnation and karma, then coming back to life as one of these fish, with survivial dependant on eating the crap off the bottom of an oyaji's feet, would have to be the equivalent of the worst level of hell.

[Charles]

If you happen to believe in reincarnation and karma, then coming back to life as one of these fish, with survivial dependant on eating the crap off the bottom of an oyaji's feet, would have to be the equivalent of the worst level of hell.

That's not how it works. These animals are relieving pain and disease of a human being with buddha-nature. This is a relatively high position, just below human. Insentient animals are incapable of doing anything directly to achieve enlightenment, they can only gain good karma by helping higher beings.

[kamome]

That's not how it works. These animals are relieving pain and disease of a human being with buddha-nature. This is a relatively high position, just below human. Insentient animals are incapable of doing anything directly to achieve enlightenment, they can only gain good karma by helping higher beings.

I wasn't being very serious, but in any case if you want to come back as a fish that eats off the bottom of some sweaty oyaji's gnarled, crusty feet, that's fine. I'd rather come back as an eagle, lion, bear or some other such creature.

[kurohinge1]

I wasn't being very serious, but in any case if you want to come back as a fish that eats off the bottom of some sweaty oyaji's gnarled, crusty feet, that's fine. I'd rather come back as an eagle, lion, bear or some other such creature.

Somehow, Kamome, I think Buddha has you pegged for a seagull.




][SIZE="4"][color="Magenta"]Buddhanet[/color][/SIZE][/URL]

... A gross misunderstanding of about Buddhism exists today, especially in the notion of reincarnation. The common misunderstanding is that a person has led countless previous lives, usually as an animal, but somehow in this life he is born as a human being and in the next life he will be reborn as an animal, depending on the kind of life he has lived ...

Reincarnation is not a simple physical birth of a person; for instance, John being reborn as a cat in the next life ... This notion of the transmigration of the soul definitely does not exist in Buddhism ... more

[Taro Toporific]

.... wanna come back as a fish that eats off the bottom of some sweaty oyaji's gnarled, crusty feet, that's fine....

[kamome]

That's just sickening.

[kamome]

Somehow, Kamome, I think Buddha has you pegged for a seagull.

That would be okay, I guess. At least seagulls get perpetual ocean views from their perch!

[homesweethome]

[Mulboyne]

Not just feet.

[Taro Toporific]

My DP so...

Not just feet.

[Taro Toporific]

[floatr][/floatr]

That's just sickening.

Something fishy about skin care treatment
Plagued by psoriasis? Weary of painful calluses? Call Doctor Fish.
asahi.com >07/25/2006
A Tokyo hot spring is offering an old Turkish remedy for skin troubles: have tiny flake-eating fish nibble away dead surface skin in a warm, shallow pool.
The treatment by "doctor fish," or Garra rufa fish, is a favorite among customers who enjoy soaking in hot springs and want to pamper their skin at the same time.
The obliging creatures are a type of West Asian carp of the family Cyprinidae that live in waters with temperatures above 30 degrees.
A fish farming company called Seanet, based in Takamatsu's Kitacho district, raises the tiny fish. President Yoshimune Uchida, 52, says his fish farm raises roughly 17,000 of the fish. They range in size from a few millimeters as babies to 13 centimeters long as adults.....
..... Uchida first heard about the unusual fish in 1989 while working at Yashima Aquarium. When the water park planned to acquire a manatee, he went to a zoo in Nuremberg to learn how to care for the large, cylindrically shaped mammals.
Manatees in captivity must be scrubbed regularly to remove fungi and moss that accumulates on their bodies, which can cause skin diseases.
One zookeeper at Nuremburg suggested adding scale-eating Garra rufa to the manatee tanks instead of scrubbing. He got the idea from fish baths common at Turkish health spas.
They were forced to give up the idea, however, because the Turkish government at the time did not permit exports of Garra rufa fish. Uchida, however, never forgot about the strange creatures.
After he retired from his aquarium job, Uchida started his own fish farm. A few years later, he heard that Garra rufa were being raised in Germany, where they were considered a valid treatment for skin diseases and thus covered by health insurance. He imported 400 Garra rufa in February 2004. After three months, however, only 180 survived...more...

[GomiGirl]

[Greji]

[floatr][/floatr]
Something fishy about skin care treatment
Plagued by psoriasis? Weary of painful calluses? Call Doctor Fish.
asahi.com >07/25/2006
A Tokyo hot spring is offering an old Turkish remedy for skin troubles: have tiny flake-eating fish nibble away dead surface skin in a warm, shallow pool.

The Brazilians have a nice fish that removes that dead skin even better. It is from the family Serrasalmidae, or the Saw Salmon strain. It would probably do a more thorough job for GG, although they do have a couple of bad traits!

[otakuden]

psht. nothing new. i remember a lake in north carolina that had lil fishies that would nibble on ze toes if u stuck em down in the water far enough. it tickled, but that was about it. shoot, i'd go for it, specially the feet.

[GomiGirl]

The Brazilians have a nice fish that removes that dead skin even better. It is from the family Serrasalmidae, or the Saw Salmon strain. It would probably do a more thorough job for GG, although they do have a couple of bad traits!

Are these piranha fish? Don't they eat steak?

[Greji]

Are these piranha fish? Don't they eat steak?

Ahh, yup. Their bad trait that I mentioned is that they just don't stop at the dead skin!

[Charles]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
[SIZE="3"]Inability to sanitize live carp ends fishy foot treatments[/SIZE]

For the past three weeks, scores of customers descended upon a nail salon in Kent.

They came from Idaho and Ohio and Minnesota. The appointment book was booked solid two months out.

And men, yes, men, came in droves, too.

They came to Peridot Nail Salon and parted with $30, so that for 15 minutes, tiny fish could nibble the dead skin off their feet.

"Customers loved it," said the salon's owner, Tuyet Bui, who goes by Tweety.

Thursday, however, the Department of Licensing shut down Bui's, um, fishy operation, saying that the pedicures were illegal.

Inspectors from the agency stopped by the shop recently and observed the procedure. After conducting further research, the department decided that the pedicures were unsanitary and potentially unsafe.

...more...

[Taro Toporific]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Inability to sanitize live carp ends fishy foot treatments
...the agency's decision, which was based on a state law that all implements used in pedicures had to be "sanitized, disinfected, or disposed of after each service to protect salon customers from the possibility of disease and infections."
"You can clean files and other equipment, but there is just no way to sanitize live fish," said Christine Anthony, a spokeswoman for the agency.

[Greji]

[Charles]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Inability to sanitize live carp ends fishy foot treatments
...the agency's decision, which was based on a state law that all implements used in pedicures had to be "sanitized, disinfected, or disposed of after each service to protect salon customers from the possibility of disease and infections."
"You can clean files and other equipment, but there is just no way to sanitize live fish," said Christine Anthony, a spokeswoman for the agency.

I wonder if they have similar regulations for medical apparatus (like leeches that are now commonly used to remove blood from wounds).

[amdg]

Biosurgery is also a fun way for animals to help us.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Salon Owner Fights Arizona To Restore Fish Pedicures

April 16, 2010
A tiny 2-inch-long, toothless fish is causing a big stir in Arizona.

Cindy Vong, a Phoenix-area salon owner, is taking the state to court after the cosmetology board pulled the plug on her fish-pedicure business.

In a 2008 promotional video, a group of women sits across the back wall of LaVie Nails and Spa with their feet plunged into a tank of water. Inside, little carp feast on calloused flesh. As the sucker mouths latch on, the women roar with laughter.


"It's a good business idea," Vong says. "Business was booming."


Business is not booming anymore. Vong says it's been about a year since the state ordered her to stop fish pedicures. At the time, she was the only one in town offering the service. Vong now sells shoes and stilettos along the back wall, but they're not nearly as popular as the $30 pedicures were. She has laid off four workers, and the traditional sound of nail files has replaced the laughter.


"If I don't have anything new, if I don't have the fish back, yes, my salon will be closing soon," Vong says. ...