Ichthyotherapy is the kind of spa treatment which draws excited gasps from some people, and reduces others to high-pitched squeals of revulsion. Either way, it is coming to an extremity near you very soon.
Appy Feet will open their newest branch at No. 41 in the St James Centre (near the Leith Street entrance) on Monday 25 October. They employ a technique which originated in Turkey (and is now popular across the Far East) whereby hands and feet plunged into warm water are then nibbled upon by inch-long fish to remove dead and calloused skin.
The Garra Rufa are toothless, minnow-sized creatures with an appetite for those bits some of us would not go near with a barge-pole. In the wild they are found in the rivers of the northern and central Middle East, and in Turkey they are now protected to prevent overharvesting. Their attentions are tickly or tingly but supposedly painless.
Also known as 'Doctor Fish' or 'longish red suckers' – Garra rufa are reputed to be effective in the temporary relief of psoriasis symptoms, but are intended here equally for cosmetic purposes prior to manicures or pedicures.
This correspondent makes no claims for or against the benefits of the treatment or its safety, about which there are competing claims online. On purely aesthetic grounds, he will be keeping his feet to himself and squealing.
[Photo by yamada kazuyuki from Higashi-betsuin, Japan (doctor fish), CC-BY-2.0]