Hall Of Shame Deux

Even though I have a couple of these stories of guys with "therapeutic need" for a massage, writing about them either depresses or pisses me off and I don't want to go into the New Year bringing up more of these experiences, so this will be it :)

Gabe- mid 30's to 40's. Soon after I started after massage school I advertised therapeutic massage on Craigslist for $45 for one hour and this guy called and asked some questions that made feel uneasy. For some reason when he called again I did not check my log to see that he had called before. He wanted to come in for a massage asap. Twenty minutes past the time he was supposed to be here he called to say he was caught in heavy traffic, it took him another 30 minutes to get here. I should have just cancelled the appt then.

He claimed to have some trouble with his thigh area so he wanted some time spent on that area. After about 30 minutes I was just about to have him turn onto his back he asked me to dig into his right glute muscle with my elbow really hard, he said it hurt but felt good. He was groaning and making grinding motions. He kept asking me to do more work on that area. I finally asked exactly what was wrong with the area. He said he had been hurt in an accident and had been seeing a Chiropractor until the insurance stopped paying. He said the Chiro had done "crossfiber", applying deep friction to the muscle and asked if I could do that as well. The location he wanted the work on was very difficult to "crossfiber." Because this guy was having me do such deep work I was starting to think he really did have the issues he said and I continued to work on him, I was drenched in sweat.

He had asked for one hour and at about 20 minutes past his hour he wanted to flip over and I told him that I would have to end the session soon before I have to pick something up from somewhere. He wanted his inner thigh massaged and then asked if I could massage his abs. While I was massaging his abs he started moving the cover further down and I saw him looking at my face, I guess he was trying to gauge my reaction. I kept massaging his abs and his hands started going toward his genital area and I heard him say "could you......" I interrupted him before he could finish what he was about to say and I said "your time is up" and walked out of the room.

I felt so digusted and angry because I had really believed he had a therapeutic need for a massage. I called a friend so when he came out of the room I could just show him out. He came out and found me standing by the front door. He handed me the money with a $10 tip and he said he would call to schedule another appointment. I just opened the door so he could leave without me saying a word. I felt violated in a way and needed a shower to wash away the disgust I was feeling.

That guy really had me confused. I still can't decide if he was actually someone who had an injury and figured he could use it to fool an unsuspecting massage therapist into doing extra work on him and then try to turn it into something more. Or he is someone who enjoys pain and learned some terminology so he could sound like he had a legitimate reason for asking for some uncomfortable work to be done on him. I decided then that I would start collecting payment upfront, and I would no longer go over the time the client was paying for and I went and got pepper spray later that day, just in case.