What to know
- Toronto-based tinglesbar is the world’s first real-life ASMR spa, turning viral TikTok “tingles” into in-person treatments using touch, sound, and guided sensory experiences.
- Services range from a $139 signature full-body (head, back, face) ASMR session to shorter treatments and immersive roleplay add-ons — including themed experiences like Harry Potter-inspired scenarios.
- Founder Tammy Lung says the goal is to “reset” the nervous system through calming triggers tied to oxytocin. The service helps combat stress, burnout and lack of human touch.
If you’ve ever found yourself doomscrolling on TikTok, mesmerized by calming ASMR videos and wishing you could actually feel those tingles, tinglesbar is the world’s first spa bringing that experience to life.
From gentle auditory cues to exploring “oddly satisfying” textures and movements through back scratching or a scalp massage, tinglesbar’s ASMR experience allows you to immerse yourself in a new spa experience.
Founder of tinglesbar, Tammy Lung, explained that the core of ASMR is a nervous system response. “It’s tied to oxytocin… sometimes called the love hormone because you get that soothing and warm feeling when someone hugs you.”
She compares it to feeling cared for. “It’s that feeling of calm and gentle relaxation that gets triggered when you feel safe again or when you receive personal attention and feel cared for.”
According to Lung, ASMR resets the nervous system, helping you move out of a state of stress or anxiety.
Compared to only watching a video, adding the physical triggers, like touch, heightens the ASMR experience. “Especially in today’s society, where everyone’s constantly on the go, burnt out, overstimulated with all of our digital devices, we were kind of losing that sense of human touch and connection. So we try to bring that element back,” Lung said.
So how does it work?
Staff perform treatments in a safe and platonic way – nothing on the chest or below the waist – using tools and techniques intended to help you explore different sensory experiences.
The studio is set up as a “neon jungle,” a space with glowy lighting and greenery. Lung explained the goal was to take customers “out of the hustle and bustle of the city.”
Once inside, customers receive a welcome drink, fill out an intake form if they haven’t already, and relax until the time of service. After a consultation that covers what the service entails, the experience will begin.
Many newcomers often choose the signature 60-minute experience at $139, which offers “a bit of everything.” The first 30 minutes are performed with the client face down on the massage table, and the latter are performed with the client face up on the massage table. The focus is on the head, back and face. The staff opens and closes with a body scan and grounding meditation. Various instruments, such as singing bowls and tools, are incorporated throughout the journey. Then, if the client is open to soft speaking, there will be whispers or different scripts to guide the meditation. Following the experience, the client can have snacks or drinks until they feel “ready to leave and enter back into the world,” Lung explained.
Read More
If you have a very busy day, there’s an alternative 30-minute sensory massage for $75, currently discounted to $55.
But there’s more available beyond relaxation. “There’s a whole branch of ASMR that is related to role play and more creative avenues. So we wanted to be sure, especially me, as an ASMR fan, to address that part of the community as well and with our role plays,” Lung shared.
Starting at $189, roleplay and other add-ons can enhance your treatment with incorporated scripts, character building and storytelling in different accents or sounds. Clients can get enchanted by a Harry Potter ASMR roleplay service. “We’re now helping you imagine that you’re a character from Harry Potter that got petrified, and our ASMR staff plays the role of a witch that is trying to undo the spell using different tools and techniques on the body,” Lung explained.
What inspired the idea?
Lung told Now Toronto her love for ASMR fueled the idea behind tinglesbar. “I would watch content online from my early days of university, when I was having a lot of stress, or I was suffering from insomnia and anxiety. I would watch online for some more content to help me relax.” She’d watch videos of people getting their hair brushed or massaged and felt like she wanted a space that offers those kinds of services to exist – and she saw the comments also resonated with her sentiment.
Back in 2018, she searched up if these kinds of services existed – and she found nothing.
“So I dabbled with it, and in 2018, I came up with the concept of a real-life ASMR spa.” She started as a pop-up event that sold out. She hosted another event, and it sold out, too. Later, she rented a space in Koreatown on weekends that was always booked, and in 2023, she rented a more permanent location that offered services seven days a week. Now, she has a full team at the spa, currently in the Yonge-Wellesley area, on the second floor of 9 Nicholas St, unit 201.
Through ASMR, tinglesbar provides a unique relaxation experience filled with care and comfort. “It’s a universal sensation that virtually every single person on this planet enjoys and has the ability to feel right,” Lung said.
