Sacrificing health for looks (Tanning)
 

Now, before I get too deep into this, I have a personal preference for women who have a tanner complexion. That's not to say that pale women are aren't attractive to me, but it's just an extra positive when I look at their attractive characteristics. I also am aware it's vapid and shallow to think that color has any sort of bearing on a person's personality. I have gone to tanning beds off and on for the past 3 years. I first started after I came back from a boat cruise in the summer and was noticeably tanner. I got a startling amount of compliments from people and longer looks from girls. So I started tanning regularly during winter to help combat seasonal depression as well. Sometimes I use lotions, but I don't really know enough about the specific products to stick with a single one.

So I have already made my decision on tanning. I am aware of the potential repercussions as far as an increased chance of developing melanoma and "leathering" of the skin. I figure if I keep my overall time in tanning beds and being outside in the sun under control, I should be okay.

What are your thoughts on tanning, whether it be in tanning beds or getting a classic beach-tan? Are there any lotions that help give your body that "bronzed" look while protecting it from the harmful stuff? Tanning does prevent this though...

http://www.apsu.edu/thompsonj/Anatom.../rickets03.jpg

I'm pasty white... 10 minutes in the sun and I look like a lobster.. Years ago, i went to tahiti for a 10days on vacation... before i went I went to a tanning center for a few weeks to give me a good base because i didn't want to get my usual sun poisoning... I looked stupid with a tan... it didn't look natural on me..

I've never seen a tanning center tan on women that their skin didn't look leathery and unhealthy...

I'm pasty white and that's how i'll stay :D

I got sunburned yesterday :(

I'm not a big fan of tans. However, I tan quickly and am forgetful when it comes to sunscreen. I used to tan all the time when I was younger. I love the sun, not tanning beds...they never did anything for me I was still pale afterwards.

Some people look good with tans, but I don't put preference on people based upon that. I try to stay untanned, but it happens. Then I get tanlines and I hate those.

Skin cancer isn't the reason I don't tan anymore though. If I'm going to have skin cancer it's probably already started considering I have dark brown every summer since age 2.

In olden days women did things to keep their lily white skin (milk baths and such) I think they had it right....the tanned look does nothing for me on a male or female.

I had red hair when i was born...it all fell out but I was left with the complexion and the burning ability of a redhead. I can literally be out side for an hour and any exposed skin is as red as a lobster so I have no love of the sun either lol I was in Atlantic City in October a few years ago and walked the beach from AC to Venture City and back....I had sun poisioning so bad it wasnt funny, I threw up AND had diarreha for days...plus I coudnt wear cloths... sunscreen does not work on me...it could be 500 spf and I'd still burn....fun times...oh yeah

I think I will keep my "whiteness"

I have a customer at the bank... recently widowed. Her husband had a small spot of skin cancer.

No big deal right?

Wrong.

That lil spot of sun cancer did something I didnt think possible. It went to other parts of his body. He died from that little spot of sun cancer. It ended up in his brain. I will stay pasty white thanks.

A tan is a symptom of skin damage.

I'm sure that somewhere in my brain there's a reaction to tanned and healthy looking skin that simply isn't there "pasty" and milky white skin but on the conscious level there isn't much of a difference. I have noticed that I can tell the difference between those that tan naturally and those that tan through the use of tanning beds - rarely ever are unnatural tans as fitting as natural tans....

Despite skin cancer and all the other ills that come along with tanning, if that's how you'd prefer to look then that's how you should. The purpose of human existence isn't to live forever...

...

I do not tan. To me, tanning is just dumb. Why would I deliberately damage my skin cells? No thanks. My grandpa had to have several melanomas removed from his scalp and face over the course of his life from living in Florida. I think I will continue to limit my sun exposure and I do wear facial sunscreen daily.

Besides, when I reach 50 I will look younger than everyone else my age!

As for the rickets, that is why we fortify our milk these days.

I like girls that are pale more than the dark tan look. But for skinny guys like me, a tan makes a big difference.

I only got sunburned once when I was living in Phoenix for 6 years. And I never had a tan before I was 21 or so.

I was never used tanning beds before, but I've always wondered if people wear bathing suits when they use them or do they not want tan lines? I probably should use a tanning bed once or twice a month during the winter here since I never see the sun from December to March.

As for skin cancer, I would be more likely to die from other causes than skin cancer. And they might find a cure for it in the next 30 years or so.

Speaking from a pasty computer nerd perspective, which I pretty much am, I used to tan frequently about a year ago. I've lost most of the tan by now. I looked a whole lot better in my opinion WITH the tan, but it was just too expensive. I know that's shallow. I used the tanning beds that put out the UV rays that the sun puts out as well, so my tan looked pretty natural for the most part.

The main thing is that it helped my complexion a whole lot. My face especially. My face looked much, much better with a tan - more consistant. When you tan, you don't have to go leather-face on it; you can do it in moderation to where you can't tell the difference.

The main thing that gets on my nerves is that most of the people arguing about how unhealthy tanning beds are would not have argued about someone who is outside all the time with the same tan. Even though it's a very similar thing.

About the cancer thing? I'm not sure. I didn't go enough to peel or break out or anything with burns. I never got truly "burnt" to the point where my skin was visibly damaged; I did, however, get burnt to the point where it hurt to touch parts of my body (like a day at the beach without sun screen, but to a lesser degree).

I think pale people look much healthier with a moderate tan (not over the top sorority hyper tan during the winter status). I may start going again.

I don't tan on purpose. I don't lay in the sun and I don't go to tanning booths. I don't have the patience to just sit there. I go to the beach to have fun with the kids, we swim and try to make sandcastles. If I happen to get tan while outside gardening or playing with the kids (either in our yard or at the beach) that is ok with me. I make sure to use sunblock when going to the beach to stay safe. This one guy I work with teases me during the summer for not being tan, I just ignore him. I'd rather be healthy.

I do agree that it helps reduce the appearance of blemishes. And girls always say they want someone who is tall dark and handsome.

There is a difference in the UV rays that the tanning beds put out versus the Sun. It is why they give you those funny looking eye covers at the tanning bed places. I know someone who got a sunburn on her retina after 15 minutes without wearing the eye protectors.

Personally... I could careless for personal preference. But as a health related issue... not really something that I would do... I prefer to tan outside when I work but I usually never tan "bad"

I don't tan on purpose. If it happens during the natural course of the day (and it does, since I spend a fair amount of time outside) then so be it.

Although I must admit that a) it's very annoying to have a farmer's tan and b) I kind of want to tan myself since muscles show up better on a darker complexion. But i've yet to do it.

During my afternoon practice/excercise I don't have a shirt on, so I just end up tan.

I do admit that if I was pale, I'd probably make an effort to darken up a bit.

Tanning's never been an issue with me really because...well...I was born with one. :D

I've heard that people with darker skins are at a lower risk of developing skin cancer's from sun exposure. I'm more of a caramelly-brown colour so I try to make sure I'm wearing some kind of sunscreen in the summer.

I'm pretty average for a white person. my friends who tend to get tan call me pale, and the friends who are naturally really pale say that i look a little tan (but not much).

I went tanning outside in central park two times in my life last summer. It's just incredibly difficult for me to sit still and not do anything. I brought a book to read but that was difficult too with the glare. and you don't want to wear sunglasses so you don't get those rings around your eyes.

So if i get tan, I get tan. I won't go out of my way to do it though. Humans evolved working outside, so being outside in the sun is actually healthy to an extent. I understand it can stimulate your cells to create vitamin D and other goodies. Just can't over do it.

IMO, tanning is just a result of the "grass is always greener..." mentality. Black people who are really, really dark often want to be paler, and pale white people often want to be darker.

lucky hispanics.

My name is Ngdawg and I am a sunaholic.
From the time I was an infant and my mom would put my playpen outside, I have been a sunsitter. While other babies were cute and pink, I was taupe. This continued for over a couple of decades. Come the first 60 degree day of the year, you'd find me on the roof of my parents' shed in a bikini and I did that every chance I got until the first frost. I have even taken prescription meds to fall asleep in the sun.
I never used suntan lotion, but I'd slather body lotion on after every shower. I was 'blessed' with very oily skin, so my face, back and chest never got leathery.
I did this sunbathing religiously until the month before my wedding. I wanted to be dark, so I went to the beach. I got what turned out to be a second degree burn on both of my legs, thighs to ankles and I had gotten heat stroke-passed out in the middle of the street when I got home.
I now have freckles, crepey leg skin from the burn, odd marks on my arms and my hands look like they belong on a farmer's wife. I have had 3 moles removed but all came back negative for cancer. I have to check every mole on my body all the time.
It is still hard for me to not want to sunbathe. But one look at my forearms and I remember why I don't anymore. What also helps is that my father and brother have both had melanoma-Dad NEVER sat in the sun without a hat at least and most of his cancerous tumors have been on his head and back.
To the OP, if you now have a preference for darker skin, just fast forward 15,20 years. What looks smooth and dark now is going to be crap later. There's no such thing as 'keeping it under control'; you simply don't know what will happen and when.
That's rickets in the picture-no vitamin C. Miinimal sun exposure helps with vitamin D, which is needed to help the body process calcium.

Time magazine had a big article on tanning beds and skin cancer recently. They were talking about how 16-20 year olds (mostly girls) were getting skin cancer because of the frequency that they were in tanning beds.

Personaly I do not like tanning on myself or others, I have always been attracted to fairer skinned women and I think a dark tan makes people look very into themselves. From personal experience I have found that tanned people are more egotistical and self centered, not saying that all are but most of the ones I have met are. And a dark tan in the winter is a total turn off.

Ng, I think you have your vitamins mixed up. Rickets is lack of vitamin D. Lack of vitamin C is scurvy, hence why British sailors were called limeys.

Most people get enough vitamin D through fortified milk that they do not need to expose themselves to the sun; furthermore, even a tiny bit of sun exposure will create natural vitamin D, as ng said.

And muscle growth is a symptom of muscle damage.

:thumbsup:

Pasty and proud!

We should get t-shirts made.

I also credit this as to why I look much younger than most people my age.

What are the sources of Vitamin D?
You learn something new every day.. I still won't drink milk.. ick ptoooey... and I dislike cereal....

Just wanted to say, this post made my day.

To be somewhat on topic, I think people tend to over do it in tanning beds, and who knows what the damage will be at some later time. I think people who are out in the sun should use sunblock and be smart about their sun exposure. Honestly, I'm a hypocrite as far as that is concerned due to the fact that I have never gotten sunburned. Even ethnically enchanced people should wear sunscreen.

You could naw on bones.......

Like Kung Fu Guy, I just don't have the time nor the inclination to sit still long enough to change color. If I feel inclined to do something to enhance my looks, I'd rather exercize more.

I think people who are dedicated to tanning booths, their skin looks too artificially *done*. Like a frosted cake, rather than projecting that healthy, outdoor glow, which is I think the most attractive facet of having a tan.

Also, I'd like to preserve my face (and the rest)'s youthful appearance, and sun damage is the number one way to screw that up in a hurry. So I'll just deal with my olive complexion. By the way, even when I see someone who's very pale, I *never* think that they should get a tan (or lose 10 lbs, or whatever). So I like to imagine that no one would think the same of me.

What did we figure out about tanning?

Some people like tanning, other people don't want to get skin cancer or had it at one time.

What made our society think pale was unattractive and being tan is attractive? I mean, if you are naturally darker, that is great, but why spend money on tanning?

My guess is being pale is a clue to sickness from WAY back, when the only reason you wouldn't be out in the sun is if you were to ill to be out and about.

In the days when you couldn't go from climate controlled house to car to office to car to office to house with only a few moments of sun exposure there was something wrong with you if you didn't spend time outdoors. People rarely lived long enough to worry about the cancer side of it.

I definitely fall into the pasty white category - but I know that ten years from now, I'm going to look much younger than everyone else my age (just like my mom looks much younger than people her age). Sun only ages your skin and frankly I am slighty scared of it now - ever since last spring when I got second degree sunburn on my arms from kayaking for four hours with no sunscreen, and they have spots now and I've lost pigmentation in areas, not a pretty sight...

Yup, I'll relish in my pale skin and enjoy my 'peaches and cream complexion' thankyouverymuch....:thumbsup:

I have red hair. The sun is my enemy and tanning is not an option.

Emphasis on OUR society, because it's definitely not a universal.

In most developing countries (where brown is the dominant color), being DARK is not a good thing. It shows that you are a manual laborer and spend all day doing back-breaking, poverty-maintaining work for someone else who has more money. You should have heard my Thai family curse me up and down for spending so much time outside tanning, as a kid... they felt I was bringing down their image as upper-class people (most Thai people walk around with umbrellas in the sun). :P I didn't give a shit, but perhaps it would have done me some good to stay out of the sun!

It really makes you wonder why we value the tan look so much. I think it's very much a product of 20th-century media/movies, the "California beach boy" look, etc... just my opinion. Basically, now it's become accepted that if you have enough time/money/skills (e.g surfing, which most blue-collar workers don't do) to work on a tan, then you're upper class. It's basically the same idea as for those in brown countries... if you have enough money to either be white or be tan (given the context), then you must be somethin'... :p

Ah, ok...you're right. My dad had rickets.

Tanning as a fashion statement came around because if you got a good tan and didn't live right on the beach, it meant you could afford to go somewhere, lay in the sun for a couple of weeks then come back bronzed.

The opposite was true in elizabethan times, if you were tanned it mean to couldn't afford to be spending your time inside, having to work out in the sun instead. Nasty things like lead compounds were used to further whiten the skin.

Sexual selection at its finest.

I don't like to tan, mostly because i don't. I'm happy to sit in the shade and read a book, then just mosey around places without my shirt on when on holiday. I also get sunburned easy having a fair skin complexion.

However, i do look much snazzier when i'm tanned.

We don't drink milk in my home either. We're a family of lactose intolerants. Asians and Eastern Europeans tend to be that way. The solution is orange juice. The major brands all offer vitamin D and calcium enriched juices. It's even color coded, with a blue cap.

I'm another pasty white one. Irish and Ukranian genes do not make for a dark compexion. I avoid the sun like it causes cancer because, well, it does. When I know I'm going to be out in the sun for more than a few minutes at a time, I use sunscreen. This tends to be at amusement parks or the beach.

When we go to the beach, step one is always to cover every inch of exposed skin with sunscreen. I get SPF 30, which Grace is kind enough to apply, and She gets SPF 5, which I apply, though she really doesn't need it for sunscreen purposes so much as moisturizing. She is Polynesian on her mother's side, and has a deep beach tan in the dead of winter. Heck, applying the sunscreen is probably the best part of going to the beach. Even with it, I have to stay under the umbrella most of the time. It takes very mile exposure over a long time period to get even the lightest tan.

It's cool though. I'd prefer to still have soft, elastic skin a decade or two from now to looking a little nicer, and it's not as if there's much of anything other than my arms that isn't covered with something most of the time anyway.

Gilda

I love being "white". No, really. When I go out for an extended period of time, I apply the SPF30. I was sunburned very badly at an early age (8), and I decided then and there I wouldn't get burned again. Every now and then, it does happen, a slight burn, but I take as much preventative action as I can.

Now for my wife, she tans at the salon almost every day. I kid her that I'll still have my skin when we're old, but she thinks it's just fine to continue.

I agree there are likely cues to sickness "from way back" that humans are universally sensitive to, but tanning doesn't seem to be one of them. The posts below yours outline cross-cultural differences in the preference for tan which undermine an argument for an evolved (I'm guessing that is what you're suggesting) preference.

Some health cues that I do think are universal: open sores, extremely low BMI or extremely high BMI, high WHR in women.

Yeah, except muscle growth is reversible, cancer growth... not so much.

True and I had forgotten some of those.

in australia where most of oz rarely has a proper winter, tanning is the 'in' thing. most people have tans here, though the cancer message is also loud and clear.

being of olive complexion myself, i still 'slip, slop, slap' most times i go to the beach.