California massage practice

by Carl W. Nelson

California massage practice

In California, the practice of massage is not regulated by the state, but may be so locally by the county or city, if so chosen. Many areas have chosen not to do so.

Generally, where there is city or county regulation, the local ordinances pertaining to massage are in the context of adult entertainment only, namely sex-parlor workers, particularly where massage permits (or licenses) are issued by the police or sheriff department. Some places, the permits are issued by the tax or franchise department, or rarely by the public health department.

In December 2003, Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco Willie Brown signed the new massage ordinance approved by the Board of Supervisors, which, among other things, shifted massage permit authority from the Police Department to the Department of Public Health, and created a two-tiered massage permit system that recognizes ‘therapeutic massage practitioners’ on the one hand, and ‘adult entertainment massage workers’ on the other.

The San Francisco voluntary therapeutic/relaxation massage permitting process has a requirement of 100 hours of instruction. However, comparatively few private-practice and/or self-employed massage practitioners have applied for the massage practice permit because they regard the annual minimum fee of $100 as unacceptable and an unnecessary barrier to practice required by no other health-care profession, and, furthermore, because they had never encountered any difficulties with the city's authorities anyway.

Neither I nor any of my very many massage practitioner/therapist friends in San Francisco (as well as in the entire Northern and Central California Regions) have chosen, whatever the local regulations may be, to obtain permits to practice, and none have ever had any problems.

Uniquely, the San Francisco Massage Ordinance also recognizes a legitimate role for sensual/erotic massage and through the permitting process of the
Department of Public Health allows adult entertainment massage practice, also with a requirement of 100 hours of instruction, provided the practice and solicitation, if any, are within a building (including the several nude-dance/lap-dance theaters and clubs), and the sex, if any, is consensual.