Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.09.2013, Qupperneq 33

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33 Travel The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2013
Some people find it disgusting to be licked by animals. I am not one of
them. I am a disgusting person who loves it when cute animals give me big
wet kisses. Like most folks around town, I had never heard of a fish pedi-
cure (or any other piscine spa treatment) before noticing Fish Spa Iceland
on the corner of Hverfisgata and Barónsstígur earlier this summer. Fish
Spa’s owner, Hallgrímur Andri Ingvarsson, was first exposed to the treat-
ment back in 2012, when he got a fish pedicure while on vacation, and it
sparked an idea for enterprise.
“I’ve always been passionate about natural,
healthy living,” says the 28-year-old busi-
ness school graduate, who has previously
worked in the dietary supplement and
fitness fields. “Having these fish eat the
skin off your feet is the most natural way
possible to get a pedicure.” These would be
Garra Rufa fish, also known as doctor fish, a
very small breed of carp that originate from
river basins in the Northern and Central
Middle East. Garra Rufa are toothless but
have incredible suction power to slough the
algae off of rocks for sustenance.
A License To Nibble
As it turns out, dead skin cells are also tasty
food for these cute little whiskered fish,
something that river-bathers in the Garra
rufa’s native region discovered around the
late 19th Century. Those locals have enjoyed
natural skin-smoothing treatments thanks
to the fish since then. It was more recently
discovered that as the fish give their little
nibbly kisses, they leave an enzyme on the
skin called Dithranol, which helps skin cell
regeneration. The result is super smooth
tootsies for days.
Since the first fish spas opened in the
mid-naughties in Japan and Croatia, Turkey
has enacted laws protecting Garra rufa
from commercial exploitation, but spas
and breeders continue to spring up all over
Europe. (Fish Spa Iceland imported its own
1,000-fish school from the Netherlands.)
However, fish spas have been outright
banned in many states and provinces across
North America due to hygiene concerns.
“Sanitation and hygiene is always important
in every spa, and we take it very seriously,”
Hallgrímur says, refuting claims that the
practice is all-around unsanitary. He adds
that the spa took two years to open its doors
because the Public Health Board and the
Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority
had to carve out new categories for quality
assurance of their operation. “This was
completely new to them, so it took a while
for them to figure out how to fit us into their
regulations,” he says.
Like vibrating pillows
It’s all turned out well though. The spa now
proudly offers four pedicure tanks to sink
your feet into. Each one contains 100 litres
of water and approximately 200 Garra Rufa.
The spa also plans to offer manicures soon
enough, as many of Hallgrímur’s cross-
fit training friends have corns all over the
palms of their hands. The water is continu-
ously sterilised by UV ray filtering and the
tanks are separated to avoid any cross-con-
tamination. What’s more, you can’t just hop
in there fresh out of the sock.
As Hallgrímur led me into the main pedi-
cure area of the spa—a beautiful calm space
with high ceilings and flooded with natural
light—the spa’s technician Gabríel followed
carrying a pair of pristine white plastic slip-
pers. He placed them next to a foot-rinsing
station, where he directed me to scrub both
my feet under clear water, then spray them
with a sterilising gel, and then rinse my feet
off again. I then stepped into the white slip-
pers and shuffled over to the tank, climbed
a little step, took a seat and dunked in my
legs.
After the initial fifteen seconds that the
extremely ticklish probably could not han-
dle, the feeling settled into a soft vibration
similar to having your foot right up against a
hot tub jet. Looking away for a few minutes
or closing my eyes, it was easy to forget that
those were fish down there, foraging the
skin between my toes, but one look down
and I was awash with giddiness.
Twenty minutes later my feet were the
smoothest they’ve felt in months and every
step felt like I was walking on a vibrating pil-
low. I would go back in a heartbeat because
hey, I’m a sucker for cute animals. Especially
when the cute animals are toe suckers.
Magnus Andersen
Fish Spa Iceland is located at Hverfisgata 98 (although the entrance is on
Barónsstígur). For their services and rates, visit fishspa.is.
Words
Rebecca Louder