Cupping massage, or cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine, in which a local suction is created on the skin, using heat or mechanical devices. Practitioners believe this mobilizes blood flow, and in turn, promotes healing. (Wikipedia)
Healing of what, I'm not very sure. I did it because I think the bruises look cool, and I was hoping it would feel good and perhaps relieve some of the tension on my neck, shoulders and upper back.
2016: After walking around in Bukit Bintang, looking for a massage parlor that was cheap and clean enough, I settled on the one in Times Square. The lady who served me claimed she came from China. Suspiciously, her accent sounded very Malaysian to me. Perhaps she has lived in the country for a long time.
She started with a brief massage, and boy, was she strong! I was starting to believe that she really was from China. And then she asked me to relax (I should have known that was a bad sign, because people always ask you to relax just before they do mean things to you, like the time my swimming instructor asked me to relax and then snatched the flotation device away). True enough, the Chinese masseuse then slapped these hot cups onto my back, and each of them immediately started to suction my skin and pinch my flesh like crazy. I don't know, it felt like really hard pinching and squeezing and never letting go, like someone was really mad at you or something.
The lady told me to relax (again) and said she was going to leave me for 15 minutes while she attended to other customers. I was like, hho...kayy..
When the torture time was up, she came back and started the process of prying the cups off my back, which was also quite painful, but thankfully, fast. My skin was still very sore when she proceeded to give me another strong massage. This was how my skin looked for a few days afterwards:
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| Not as painful as it looks |
