Tanning Obsessions

We hear clips on the news about how the sun affects our skin, but these news features are typically a minute or two long. Other TV shows are now starting to show how tanning is becoming an obsession among young people. On TLC's My Strange Addiction, Tricia and Samantha tell their stories about how they love tanning. The girls admit that they are aware of the consequences of what the tanning booths will do to their skin, but both believe that because nothing has happened so far that they will be safe in the future. 

Tricia

Samantha

Tricia and Samantha both found a way to tan multiple times a day. It is illegal for tanning salons to allow customers to tan more than once per day at their salons. What each girl does is sign up at numerous salons, going from one salon to the next each day - Samantha visited up to 5 salons per day. What the salons need to do is check with the other salons to see if they have matching clients. Every time a person tans in a tanning bed, he or she becomes eight times more likely to get skin cancer. If these girls are rotating around, they are exponentially increasing their chances...daily.

Both girls are so concerned with their appearances that they overlook what will happen in the future. Tricia admits that she doesn't care about dying earlier, as long as she looks tan. Samantha says in her feature that though she knows tanning will age her faster, there are cosmetic surgeries to help fix her problems. The one aspect that each episode has in common is neither girl seems concerned about getting skin cancer. 

At the end of each My Strange Addiction episode, there is an update on the featured person. Both girls found out that they do not have cancer from dermatologists, but they also found out what will happen should they continue on in the decisions they are making. For full episodes, check out My Strange Addiction on TLC. MTV has also held a casting call for their show True Life: I'm Addicted to Tanning.

These episodes, in a way, serve as a Public Service Announcement. Many viewers will see just how tanning can change their lives. If they do not take extra precautions, they could be slowly killing themselves, and possibly using one of the technologies in previous posts to get rid of the melanoma. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to avoid the tanning bed.