Killer Tan: A Break From Wine Talk to Touch on an Issue That's Important to Me

June gloom has finally come to an end and now that the sun is showing its pretty face, time to dust off that bikini and enjoy those rays. When I was in high school this was my favorite time of year. At 16, I was a sun worshipper. But being fair-skinned, I’d always burn. My solution: A couple weeks at the tanning salon for my pre-tan and I was set for months of fun in the sun.

Beach bums, or anyone who enjoys their share of ultraviolet rays (or maybe even an OD of Vitamin E) often refer to themselves as “sun worshippers”. But in my teen years I took things to the extreme. My ritual didn’t only include the pre-tan, but I also had to be out in the sun between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when it was shining at its strongest. Sunscreen. What’s that? Give me some of that Hawaiian Tropics tanning oil. A few dips in the pool to attract those rays and I’m good to go.

More than a decade later I say to myself, “What the heck was I thinking?”… especially after I read the June 18th issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which reports that skin cancer patients are getting younger. It’s become the second most common form of cancer among women between the ages of 20 to 29. What’s worse is that all the warnings in the world are being brushed off. Citing that same article titled, “Skin Cancer Strikes Younger People,” consumer reports found that 31 percent of Americans never use sunscreen or sun protection. Another 27 percent said they never or rarely use it on their kids.

That’s crazy considering the fact that skin cancer is the most common of all cancers and it can be deadly. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 60,000 people were diagnosed with skin cancer in 2007. Around 8,000 people died from the disease.

So with those alarming figures, why do we ignore the things that can prevent us from being victims? Is it that, “It won’t happen to me” attitude? Or is that golden tan worth life itself?

So far I’ve been lucky. A woman in my 30’s, all that sun worshipping in my teens didn’t hurt me. But now I only wear SPF 45. I even wear clothes and a visor to the beach. And to be honest, I enjoy those beach barbecues even more so now, especially since I don’t wake up the next day with a painful sunburn.

If all the facts and figures still haven’t phased you think about this: The American Academy of Dermatology finds that most premature aging is caused by sun exposure. I don’t know about you. But I’ll take my pasty white skin color over a killer tan any day. You know why? Because I enjoy the fact that I still occasionally get carded.

dermanetwork.org.