I think it's a good thing overall. This shouldn't de-evolve into a debate on whether tickle massage "mainstreams" our fetish and ruins it or whatever. What it DOES do is make people more receptive to touch---and in this case, ticklish touch. In U.S. culture, it seems to have proliferated under something called "ASMR," and if you search "ASMR, tickling" on YouTube, you will find all manner of interesting videos of people talking about and doing this. No, it's not about sexual/sensual stimulation in our context. It's about "relaxation," though I find this contradictory, even though most tickle massage involves feathers and very light strokes. It would seem that anyone who goes to one of these "parlours" enjoys either the sensation of tickling on some level, or is in need of touch. Another trend that popped up around the time of the Madrid parlours is the rise of "professional cuddlers," in which people hire other people to just lay down with them and hold them (ostensibly nonsexually). I've seem several levels of rationale given, but the one that intrigued me is that people today are starved for "touch," and I have been wondering for years why people are so focused, sexually, on about just 5 percent of our body parts for sexual contact: vagina, clit, breasts----the holy trinity, as it were (yes, yes, I know that these are part of our tickling realm as well, but let's face it: Their function in the mainstream is about penetration, procreation, nourishment, and whatnot, not tickling). Both trends seem to be a collective silent scream for touch throughout society, though as of now, both trends really haven't proliferated and have become a big thing, at least yet. They're still in the "boutique" stage, but who knows?
