Managing Editor

About a month ago I jumped on the tanned wagon with millions of my fake-baked peers in search of the “perfect” summer complexion. At first, I was more concerned about someone walking in on me than about the permanent damage I was doing to my skin. However uncomfortable the first time in a tanning bed was, my worries about school, family and work began to melt away, and I left the salon a better and browner person. I became content with the change I was making to my skin and increasingly addicted to the comforting purple rays that soothed me into a sleep-like state. In the second week I gained a “tanning buddy.” A friend and I synchronized our schedules to make sure that each of us got our $34 worth of superficial sun, and to make sure that neither of us developed a harsh orangey tone that is common in people who tan too often. With every girl who came out of the numbered doors, we would exchange “Don’t let me be that dark” looks while we waited for our turn. By then we had limited our tanning experiences to three times a week for seven minutes to keep from burning. By week three, I became suspicious of any “new” mark I found on my body and more concerned about getting Welder’s Flash, a condition that damages the cornea of the eye. My friend became puzzled by little white spots and childhood scars that began to appear as the rest of her got darker. I was worried. Early in week four, I visited Dr. Josie Futrell, a dermatologist at the Green Clinic, at 1200 South Farmerville St., to find out more about what tanning could do and what she has found in her patients who use tanning beds. I was nervous about what she might tell me; at one point I thought she might diagnose me with skin cancer just by looking at me. When she strolled in her quaint office to meet with me, I could not help but notice her porcelain, young-looking skin. She folded her arms and enlightened me about the effects of tanning. She began with, “Tanning is our bodies’ effort to protect us from the sun.” She told me that overexposure to any and all ultra-violet light can cause sunspots, wrinkling and skin cancers. That’s when she dropped the bomb on me. “I recently took melanoma off of a 15-year-old,” she said. “She’d been going to the tanning bed.” She said as few as 10 tanning sessions in a year can double the lifetime risk of developing melanoma. Hoping to ease my mind I asked her if there was any way to tan safely. “Don’t,” she replied. She said no one is immune to skin damage from the sun and tanning before going on vacation to the beach is not a good idea. “The skin damage you get from tanning is cumulative,” she said. “The more you go [to tan] the more damage is caused to your skin and the more likely you are to get skin cancers.” After the interview, she ushered me out with a handful of pamphlets and documents that contained skin cancer statistics, a risk factor quiz and a promise of a quick response if I had any more questions about tanning. I left her office that day wondering how much a bottle of sunless tanner and a tube of sunscreen would cost and happily vowed never to return to the bright lights of my local tanning salon.