I knew this hippy chick awhile back who was getting her certification in eastern medicine. I let her practice accupuncture and various procedures on me while she was going to school. I was cool with it all, not too much pain or anything.

Then one day she told me to roll on my back in her bed and she was going to try "fire cupping" for the first time. She had a bunch of glass cups, lit a match inside each one, created a vacuum and applied them all over my back. Of course they stuck to my back with the suction created and we waited for around 30 minutes, after which she removed them and it was fairly uneventful.

The next night I had an Ultimate game at UBC to play. It was extremely hot out and the second team we played that night had the same color uniforms we had... so we flipped a coin and we drew skins. We took our shirts off and began play. About ten minutes into the game I noticed everyone on the field, my team included was looking at me pretty strange.

Eventually we did a line change and I went to the sidelines and one of the girls on my team came up to me laughing and said "I guess we all know your bedroom secrets now." I asked her what the heck she was talking about and she said I'm talking about all the weird S&M bruises on your back. I ran to the washrooms and looked in the mirror and my whole back was covered in blue and black perfect circle bruises that looked totally surreal. It was pretty f'd up.

It is extremely common in Eastern Europe, Stranger. I am surprised you are not familiar with it.

chinese things. Hospitals were way poor to have lighters back in the day.