A backscratcher, occasionally known as a scratch-back, is a tool used, as the
name would suggest, for relieving areas that cannot easily be reached just by
one's own hands, typically the back.
They are generally long, slender, rod-shaped, tools good for scratching one's
back, with a knob on one end for holding and a rake-like device, sometimes in the
form of a human hand, on the other end to perform the actual scratching. Many
others are shaped like horse hooves, claws, or are retractable, to reach further
down the back. Though a backscratcher could feasibly be fashioned from most
materials, most modern backscratchers are made of plastic, though examples can be
found made of wood, whalebone, tortoiseshell, horn, cane, bamboo, ivory, baleen
and in some cases in history; narwhal tusks, due to the increased social
hierarchy that generally accompanied relieving itches with a supposed unicorn
horn.
