Urban Legend - A Bad Back

While travelling, a young man in a foreign country began to suffer from a bad back.  After trying numerous medicines, the pain in his back became more severe.  Upon questioning the people that he met on his travels he was advised to try acupuncture.  He decided to try it as nothing else had worked so far.  He was advised of where he could find somebody to perform acupuncture.  It took him a while to find the shop but he eventually found it.  He was nervous when first entering, as it was a lot smaller than he had expected.  However his mind was soon put to ease when he saw other travellers as well as the local residents waiting in the reception area.  There was a certificate that had been framed and hung onto the wall.  He couldn’t read what it said but he assumed that it was some form of acupuncture qualification.

            After a short wait the traveller was guided into the room to see the specialist.  Communication between the two of them was awkward as neither of them could understand the others language.  The traveller lay on a table in the room and pointed to his back so the specialist prodded and pierced the traveller’s back for several hours.  It was painful and hurt much more than the traveller had expected.  When the specialist had finished he paid the specialist a larger sum of money than he had originally assumed it would cost and left the room.

            As he walked through the reception area a young man who could speak a little bit of English asked the traveller what he had done.  The traveller told him that he had his back done.  Not wanting to seem rude to the young man, the traveller asked what he was having done.  To the traveller’s surprise, the young man rolled up his sleeve revealing an unfinished tattoo on his arm.  The traveller quickly realised that the certificate on the wall was in fact a tattooist qualification. Hastily moving towards a mirror the traveller lifted up his top and was shocked to find that he had the tattoo of a dragon going up the centre of his back.