Anointed Hands Massage owner Tarmisha Hill’s longtime dream was to be a massage therapist.
Hill set out to make her dream become a reality when her best friend, Lakisha Ward, told her Concorde Career College was in Southaven and had a program to help students become licensed massage therapists.
Hill started at Concorde Career College in December 2018 and graduated at top of her class with a GPA of around 3.9 in November 2019. Before graduating, students had to massage at least 50 bodies and after a state test.
“She (Ward) was like, ‘Friend, they’re in Southaven now,” Hill said. “You’ve got to go.’ I said, ‘I’m going to go.’ Everything just flowed from the beginning to the end. I was the top of my class.”
Building a business
After graduating, in June 2020, Hill opened Anointed Hands Massage in Clarksdale and has been building her business ever since.
Hill was a cake decorator at casinos for 23 years and continued that work when she was studying to become a massage therapist. She was employed at Gold Strike Casino when the COVID pandemic began. When it temporarily closed, she started her own business.
Tomeka Berry owner of Pattycakes Hair Salon, provided Hill with workspace for her first couple of months. Then she moved into the Stevens Building in downtown Clarksdale.
Hill’s mother, Charlotte Ward, helped her come up with the name Anointed Hands Massage.
“When I started school, we had already kind of got a name,” Hill said. “It was going to the Anointed Hands Massage Spa and I just didn’t want it that long.”
Hill took the last word off and had the name Anointed Hands Massage for her business. She said her time as a cake decorator helped her mother come up with the name.
“My family, all of us are good with our hands,” Hill said.
Hill said her mo. had an aneurysm while she was in school, stayed in the hospital for two months and a nursing home 10 months.
“That was a push,” Hill said. “When I started school, my mom and my husband (Delvin Hill) said, ‘You can do it.’ My mom inspired me with Anointed Hands Massage.”
One of the biggest challenges was starting a business during the COVID pandemic.
“When the pandemic hit that March, I just said, ‘Well, I’m going to have to take off running. I am going to have to go ahead and put these licenses to use,’” Hill said.
“I really just stepped out on faith and started my business.”
Hill, who has taken the COVID vaccine and encouraged others to do the same, said no client ever called her after being massaged to say they had the virus. She never contracted COVID herself.
“I just took all precautions,” Hill said. “When the governor opened it back up, I ordered all the masks, did the temperature check. I just was prepared and a lot of prayer. Just praying and doing what I’m supposed to do. Making sure everybody’s hands are clean, wiping down sanitizing. I did a deep cleaning in here and the sanitizing spray. I just did my precautions.”
What is massage therapy?
Anointed Hands Massage provides many different services.
“Massage therapy is not just about rubbing,” Hill said. “Massage therapy has a lot of benefits as well. Some people come back and ask, ‘What do I get? What’s a Swedish? What’s the difference in the deep tissue?’
“Deep tissue is a little more pressure. Some people want deep tissue on their shoulders. The main complaints people have is their neck, shoulders and their back.”
Anointed Hands Massage provides aromatherapy, which is a holistic healing treatment that uses natural plant extracts to promote health and well-being.
Hill said she incorporates hot towels and hot stones with aromatherapy.
Hill is also a body contour specialist. She provides body contour therapy in another room in the Stevens Building where she does post op lymphatic for those going to Miami for Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) surgery. She provides after care when they come back.
Benefitting from massage therapy
Hill has massaged several football players from Clarksdale High School and Coahoma Community College.
“I do some of the football players as well,” Hill said. “If you’re under 18, a parent has to be here with you.”
Her son, Dominick Hill, 17, is a senior linebacker for the Wildcats.
“I actually have a table at home and so after games sometimes, he gets in the shower and he says, ‘Mama, can I get a message tonight?’” Hill said. “And so I have to give him a massage as well.”
Hill has also massaged Clarksdale senior linebacker Jordan Allen.
“Ms. Allen sat there and said, ‘I’m just relaxed by sitting here. The atmosphere is just wonderful,’” Hill said.
On the field, Hill believes the Wildcats, 6-2 and 3-0 in district play, have an experienced team poised to make a deep run in the playoffs. Dominick Hill is one of 19 seniors on the roster.
“They’re more focused and the defense is awesome,” Hill said. “The defense is awesome with them this year. It is. I’m so excited for them. This year is the most seniors they’ve had. I’m really proud of the boys.”
Hill believes the Wildcats being forced to forfeit the second round of the 2020 playoffs due to a COVID outbreak on the team motivated them in 2021.
“It really pushed them more,” Hill said. “They really were going to go the extra mile to get the numbers and they really did. I’m proud of those guys.”
Hill recently began building her relationship with CCC.
“I had someone from CCC, one of the players, his hands were tight and his lower back was tight,” Hill said. “And so the coach brought him here and he got a massage. He’s from Louisiana, Baton Rouge to be exact. He said, ‘I will be back as long as I’m here and I’m going to tell my other teammates as well about you.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s good to hear.’”
Hill has mentioned to Dominick Hill and coaches that she is always available and willing to help teams. She said she has many regular customers as well as individuals from out of town who come to see her.
Hill specifically mentioned when actor Morgan Freeman was in town and she massaged a team of his accountants along with an actress and a person on the set at the Clark Tower in Memphis.
“That was a great experience,” Hill said.
Hill is self-promoting herself through word of mouth, Google reviews and passing out business cards.
“I tell anybody this was a good start for me,” Hill said. “Eventually, I want to get a bigger and hopefully bring a couple therapists on board. I do have two therapists that help me when I do couples.”
Dominque Mosby from Jackson and Keira Mattis from Oxford are the therapists.
About Tarmisha Hill
Tamisha Hill will have been married to her husband, Delvin Hill, 19 years in November.
Her daughter, Diajah McKay, 25, is her oldest child. She also has a stepson Delvin Hill Jr. Dominick Hill was born a little more than a year after his parents married.
Hill, originally from Memphis, is a 1993 Fairley High School graduate. She attended LeMoyne–Owen College in Memphis where she studied music and computer programming for one semester.
Then she worked at casinos for 23 years as a cake decorator in the bakery department. She began working at Sam's Town Hotel & Casino where she was for five years and then went to Harrah's Casino Tunica for 13 years. Her last casino job was at Gold Strike Casino.
“I learned on the job,” said Hill of being a cake decorator.
Some of Hill’s favorite desserts are crème brulée chocolate cakes and carrot cakes.
Delvin Hill, a Clarksdale High School graduate, earned a degree in accounting at CCC and works at Red River Federal Credit Union as a teller supervisor.
“I met my husband at the casino and I just moved down here,” Hill said.
Delvin Hill was working in room service at the casino at the time.
When Hill told people she was moving to Coahoma County from Memphis, she said others told her she was a city girl.
“It was really a change for me from being a city girl,” Hill said. “Folks were like, ‘You’re moving down to Clarksdale. I was like, ‘Yeah.’”
Hill lived in Jonestown when she first came to Coahoma County and has resided in Clarksdale the past 12 years.
“It’s a little faster than Jonestown,” Hill said. “Everything is around. You can get to it quicker. Being a city girl, everything is right there, so this was kind of better.”
She said Memphis is a faster pace than Coahoma County and she likes living in Clarksdale.
“I wasn’t reluctant to the change at all. I adapted well,” Hill said.
Hill and her family visit one another frequently. Family members came from Memphis to see Dominick Hill and the Wildcats play on senior nights as they defeated Yazoo City 34-0.
Friends and family helped make being a massage therapist possible.
It appeared Hill would have an opportunity to take a class in Oxford at one point, but not enough students signed up. Another time she had an opportunity, but the drive was too far from the casino.
“When it came to Southaven, I jumped on that,” Hill said. “One year I said I am going to go ahead and do that. I knew that I wanted to do something different. I’ve always wanted to be a massage therapist.”
Hill talked to Delvin and Dominick Hill before going to school. She told Dominick, who also plays baseball, back in 2018 that she would be at all of his games his senior year at Clarksdale high School.
“I sat my husband down and I sat Dominick down and I told them, ‘Let Mama go for this one year,” Hill said. “I won’t miss a game. I will see me and your dad in the stands. It was very important for him to see me. It was his last year to be able to see him at all his games.’”
Hill got her first massage 22 years ago when she was with friends in Hot Springs, Ark. She has since gone to Hot Springs with her husband and gotten massages.
“I got massages all the time. I loved going to Hot Springs, Ark. I got so many massages. We could just go over there, get massages and come back home. I just love them. I always have loved massages.”
Advancement of women
Hill is proud of the progress women have made in the business world.
“We’ve come so far and it’s a blessing to be able to do what you love and knowing you could reach people and touch people,” Hill said. “Because it’s healing in this. It is. It’s more than just rubbing.”
Hill said clients have come in and told her they were unable to feel their foot. She was able to help their blood circulation and ability to walk.
“It’s just a blessing to touch and make people feel better,” Hill said. “As far as the women, there’s a lot of women starting their own business. It’s just good to be able to do what you love to do and be able to touch people as well. It’s a blessing.”
