For the first time, the City of Bloomington is regulating an industry that it says has been a source for sex trafficking and other illicit behavior.
A number of massage therapists in the city pushed back, claiming they were being unfairly held in suspicion. They also took exception to proposed annual fees and language referring to dress code, individual therapists’ personal information and physical characteristics.
The city dropped the fees and some personal info requirements when it approved the new regulations June 23. That muted some of the criticism, though message therapists say the stigma remains regarding public perceptions of what they do.
“We are a part of health care,” said Cindy Termuende, who has been operating a massage business in Bloomington since 2018. She provides the commonly used Swedish and deep tissue massages but also has massage clients in oncology, hospice and lymphatic drainage, a treatment more commonly associated with reducing post-surgery fluid buildup.
“It hurts a lot when people assume that [it’s an illicit business] and think it’s funny to joke about that,” she said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Melanie Dockery, another licensed massage therapist who opened her own shop in Bloomington in 2022, said she became interested in lymphatic therapy because she learned the importance of a healthy lymph system when she was treated for an aggressive form of melanoma, a skin cancer, on her right thigh.
“Our lymph system is sort of the guardians of our body. It cleans up bacteria, viruses,” Dockery said. “I love blending [lymphatic therapy] with massage therapy in my office.”
Dockery noted message therapists pay $175 every two years to go through the state’s licensing process. She said that not only provides verification that her business is legitimate, but the initial $250 annual licensing fee the city has proposed would be too costly for most owner-operators.
“It might turn out to be a breaking point. If we are putting away for retirement, that might be all that was usually donated to our retirement for a month,” Dockery said.
Dockery and Termuende agree that human trafficking — which the city’s ordinance was created to address — is a real problem.
“First I was excited because they were addressing this elephant in the room of these illicit massages that everybody knows about but doesn’t talk about,” Termuende said, adding she was shocked when the city announced regulations against massage businesses, partly because those operators received no advance notice that any regulations were under consideration.
Termuende said she's not sure the new registration process will help the city find and remove illicit businesses.
“Is this going to move to the fringe edges of the city or outside the city and just exist there? How much further is it going to push it out?” Termuende asked.
Dockery said she can more easily accept a one-time application and fee than an annual registration, but still has concerns about how much info the city will want.
“There’s some lingering feelings [from] being unsure about how this is going to unfold and how much time we might be spending on the application process,” Dockery said.
Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens said on Sound Ideas last week the city's new massage business ordinance could see more changes to prevent unintended consequences.
