Take a ten minute walk through Chinatown or the Tenderloin and you’re likely to pass more than half a dozen skeezy storefronts advertising massages. We all know that these aren’t quite the same massages that you’re going to get if you stop in at one of the day spas in the Financial District but what exactly are these places? Are they full-on brothels or fronts for some other dirty business? And what happens if you just walk into one of these spots as an average person seeking a massage?

My passing curiosity about San Francisco’s massage parlors caused me to start reading about them around the Internet. Here are some of the stories and news reports that I found:

• A Chinese Massage Parlor. This report offers a basic glimpse into what it’s like to go into one of these places and start looking for girls to give you a massage. There’s another article from 2001 that gives a more in-depth look at what it’s like negotiating in these places.
• Looking for a Happy Ending? This is an article from SFist last year that points you in the right direction to find reviews of local massage parlors and what they really offer.
• Getting Massaged In SF. This is interesting (albeit lengthy) tale of a reporter who tested out a couple of different local massage parlors and discovered different experiences at each of them.
• News reports on crackdowns. There was a big crackdown on massage parlors engaged in human trafficking a couple of years ago. There was also controversial new legislation on the issue this year. This article discusses the mayor’s involvement.

So what did I learn from my reading? As far as I can tell, you can go into these places and pay whatever the stated rate is to actually get just a mediocre massage. Then you’re informed that you can get some extras if you’re willing to pay more but of course it’s all vague since it’s all illegal. You run the risk that you’re unwittingly participating in the exploitation (or sometimes outright human slavery) of the girls that are working here. You also run the risk that the place you’re in is going to get cracked down on during the periodic raids these places go through. But since there are so many of these massage parlors operating throughout the city, it seems like those are chances that people are willing to take.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under General Info and Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.