I was 23, broke and desperate, barely getting by on my office salary, so I changed professions. After high school, I left my small hometown in Nova Scotia to study aviation, and later ended up in Australia. In a distant continent, where no one knew me, I decided to try stripping. But it was exciting. The strip club was my playgroundโa place where I could shamelessly flirt and get attention from men without having to perform sex acts.
At 23, I moved back to Toronto and got a desk job. My salary was barely enough to pay my rent, and I yearned to be earning stacks of cash like I had in Australia. So I started stripping again. But the Mississauga club that hired me was more like a brothel. I quit, resolving to never work in Toronto strip clubs again. Instead, I decided to try the erotic massage industry.
The building was nondescript, without any signage or branding; the owner advertised the place on Craigslist. Inside, there was a dim lobby and five small treatment rooms, each with its own shower. Prospective clients would pick one of the spa attendants out of a lineup. As the massage progressed, I would undress and give him a hand job. Treatment room doors were left unlocked so a law-enforcement officer could open them at any time.
Our only recourse for safety was the onsite managerโalso the receptionistโwho oversaw operations and monitored security cameras. But first I needed a licence. Ideally, a rub-and-tug would operate under a body rub licence, but the city has capped the number of those establishments at As a result, many erotic massage spas operate using holistic licences, outraging the legitimate holistic health community. To get my holistic licence, I got a full criminal background check, acquired a phony health care practitioner certificate and faked evidence that I belonged to a holistic health association.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/03/01/montreal-erotic-massage-parlours-flourishing-despite-anti-prostitution-law/eroticparlour.jpg "Adult Guide in Toronto")
But the honeymoon period ended quickly. My bosses would dock my pay for a variety of unpredictable reasons: not convincing enough walk-in clients to stay, not cleaning the treatment room to their satisfaction, being late, being sick.
