Over the years, we’ve featured our share of unusual services here on Oddity Central, from renting fat people by the hour to professional cuddling and human bed warmers, so we can’t really say we were shocked about the world’s first professional back-scratching service. Founded by 55-year-old Toni George, The Scratcher Girls is the world’s first back-scratching studio and it has been offering scratching and tracing services for years. George claims that she has always enjoyed getting back scratches and one day came to the realization that she may not be the only one, so she decided to start her own back-scratching service. She has been using the 3-inch-long manicured nails to scratch people’s backs ever since, charging up to $130 per hour.

Photo: Benjamin Wedemeyer/Unsplash

“Back scratching has always been a passion of mine since I was a little girl,” Toni George wrote on The Scratcher Girls website. “This obsession led me to paying my children for back scratches. Until this day I am still paying my grandchildren for a good ol’ back scratch.”

“One night, while sleeping, the idea of a back-scratching service came to mind and left me wondering if others would pay for this service like myself,” George added. “This epiphany left us doing lots and lots of research and here we are today as The Scratcher Girls brand.”

 

In case you’re wondering what professional back-scratching is all about, Toni George claims that it is raking a scratching therapist’s nails down a client’s back, limbs, scalp and even the insides of their ears in a way that is both relaxing and euphoric. Using light scratching and tracing movements with the tips of the nails, the therapist helps the client release “endorphins such as serotonin,” and also “connect or balance energy fields”.

Toni George recently told The New York Post that her studio charges up to $130 per hour of back-scratching, adding that the service has proven so popular – especially with the ASMR community – that she and her therapists routinely travel to major metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles or Philadelphia to see clients.