Massage guns are the latest craze in a long history of ideas about vibration therapy that goes back to the ancient Greeks.But these devices need to be used with care, experts are warning, after a man in his 20s used a massage gun on and around his eyes, damaging the retinas at the back of his eyeballs.He's not the first, either, but these cases aren't often documented. Writing in the British Medical Journal: Case Reports, ophthalmologists Niamh O'Connell and Ashraf Khan describe how the young man thought massaging his eyes would help relieve feelings of tiredness.And he had gone all in on the approach too, doing it weekly for around three months, with each 'treatment' taking several minutes.The man's retina was bruised (white arrow) and had become detached from the eye wall (left side) after massage gun use. (O'Connell & Khan, BMJ Case Rep., 2026)This unconventional therapy for fatigue left the individual with multiple tears in his retinas and serious bruising (commotio retinae) in both eyes. The retina in his right eye had also detached from the eye wall, a condition known as retinal dialysis, which can lead to permanent vision loss."The retinal tears and dialysis in this case are likely the result of percussive massage gun use directly onto the globe since the patient had no other risk factors for retinal pathology, such as high myopia, ocular surgery, or a genetic predisposition," O'Connell and Khan, from the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in the UK, write in their report."This is the first case of retinal dialysis with multiple bilateral retinal tears in the literature associated with percussive massage gun use."The patient in question presented with complaints about persistent floaters in his vision and occasional bouts of photopsia (flashing lights appearing in the eyes).The cause of these issues was, to begin with, something of a mystery. The man's doctors established that there had been no recent head injury, and he had no family history of eye health problems.Eventually, the man realized what might have happened.