Warning: Contains Graphic Pictures

My great friend Linda is Hmong. She is wonderful. And her Homng ancestry is still a pretty large part of her life... So last night she was able to talk our friends Spencer and Mike P. into a little ancient traditional healing ritual called 'cupping'. Apparently, this practice increases blood flow and re-routes circulation to the skin by irritating the surface of the skin with a suction massage. It was SO bizzare to watch her do it, and I really felt quite uncomfortable. Kinda like watching someone be tortured, except they are willingly allowing it to happen. I have no idea what Linda was trying to heal in these two, but as they kept moaning and complaining she would exclaim "Don't worry, it will work!", and I thought "what are you trying to make work?" All pain aside, it did make for quite the hilarious evening as Linda pulled out the Pam cooking spray to lubricate the skin before she massaged it and placed flaming toilet paper on their backs to go under the cup and suction up the skin... you can see the danger in this, I'm sure.