By Mary Buzby

Me (Mary) on summer vacation, Cape May, New Jersey, age 11

I wrote this article almost a year ago and I’ve been sitting on it for a while, trying to edit and perfect it. When I first wrote it, I had this idea about discussing how I grew up going to the beach every summer, the culture of tanning, and how bad it can be for you—all through the lens of having been diagnosed with skin cancer on three occasions in my life. But, I’m sitting down again to really clean it up and my story isn’t the same anymore. Since then, in just the past year, I’ve had skin cancer removed two more times.

On our big family vacations, I was always expected to be found laying out on a beach towel under the sun, when all of a sudden I’d hear—TSSHH! I’d take my headphones out to see my mom blasting me with cold, greasy sunscreen, followed by the millionth speech about the importance of taking care of your skin while you’re young blah blah blah. . .of course I didn’t listen; I wanted a “healthy” back-to-school tan. Despite my mother’s best efforts, I’ve now been diagnosed and treated for skin cancer a grand total of five times.

The good news is: skin cancer is one of the more treatable forms of cancer, but that doesn’t mean it should be approached lightly or as something you can just “slice off”. It’s still cancer, just as any other form, a clump of cells multiplying uncontrollably and abnormally. Skin cancer in particular occurs when skin cells are irreparably damaged causing mutations → cells multiplying like crazy → forming life-threatening tumors (those weird moles people get sliced off).

The reality is that there is a modern cultural trend that drives young women to want to portray the “healthy glow” of being tan, and I’m one of those people. I like being tan. It brings me a prolonged feeling of summer and the sense of happiness that summer brings. I think it blurs and covers my imperfections, making me feel more confident in my natural skin so I wear less makeup. In the age of social media, I think being tan makes me look less washed out in pictures, which my friends and I take a lot of.

I never really considered tanning beds an option, but since I’ve been in college they’ve slowly worked their way into conversation. The first time it came up was during freshman year. My friends and I were super into fake tanning—armed with a bottle of tanning mousse, a tanning mitt, and the willingness to help a roomie reach their back. Once it warmed up and springtime came around, our first sorority formal season was upon us. . .so naturally everyone was sharing their outfit and beauty battle plan, tan included. The popular topic of discussion regarding tanning was typically: which self-tan brand was best; coordinating class schedules to carpool and get spray tans together; or finding a place with a tanning bed.

Not to sound overdramatic, but I was shocked to find myself standing around our kitchen and hearing my friends tell me how they’d done it before and it doesn’t actually do anything. So here I am to TSSHH all of you, and give you the Take Care of Your Skin Talk, Special Edition: Please Don’t Use Tanning Beds.

Tanning beds do more harm to your skin than actual sun exposure. They emit 15x more UV radiation through UVA and UVB rays, damaging cells enough for Melanoma and other skin cancers to start growing. So yes, it’s a big deal.

I asked my doctor, Jessica Joyce, a certified physician assistant with Forefront Dermatology, about tanning beds and she said that this is also in part due to its immunity suppression. The rays from the machine interfere with the proper functioning of the body’s immune system by lowering the skin’s natural defenses and in turn can make you more vulnerable to diseases.

“Usually the immune system can identify DNA damage and repair or eliminate it, however, too much UV exposure causes the immune cells to lose this ability, leading to skin cancer growth.” Joyce said.

This is one of the reasons that cancer is so prevalent among devoted tanners.

What continues to surprise me is that people know the link between tanning beds and skin cancer, but don’t truly understand the seriousness of the consequences. As young adults, we are extremely aware of the link between lung cancer and smoking, but are rarely ever educated about the scary statistics associated with tanning beds. To put it in perspective, skin cancer among tanning bed users occurs more frequently than lung cancer among smokers. While high school health classes instill fear in American teens regarding smoking, and even second-hand cigarette smoke, that type of intense education is also needed regarding skin care and sun damage.

“Usually the immune system can identify DNA damage and repair or eliminate it, however, too much UV exposure causes the immune cells to lose this ability, leading to skin cancer growth”

— Dr. Jessica Joyce

To further my point, I did a little digging into the statistics and here’s what I found: The Skin Cancer Foundation reports that more than 419,000 cases of skin cancer in the U.S. every year are attributed to indoor tanning. Conversely, the American Cancer Society, along with the American Lung Association, report approximately 230,000 cases of lung cancer per year. When you do the math, there are roughly 189,000 more cases of cancer related to indoor tanning than those related to any form of lung cancer.

Believe me, I know firsthand the amazing feeling after spending a day in the sun, and I bet it feels even better after a quick sesh in the tanning bed on a cold, winter day: an even tan, a sun-kissed glow, and all in just about 20 minutes. But this “amazing feeling” is actually the reaction from the UV radiation in tanning beds releasing endorphins and other feel-good chemicals, which is what causes tanning beds to be so addictive.

In the long term, going back to the beds can change your skin texture and can cause premature aging, wrinkles, and age spots. And despite knowing this effect, “One study of university students found that more than 90 percent of tanning-bed users know about the risks of premature aging and skin cancer but continue to tan because they think it looks good,” according to CBS News.

Being tan isn’t a bad thing, and fake tanning isn’t something to feel ashamed of, but the cultural norms about what society thinks looks good versus what’s good for you needs to change as a matter of health and safety.

“Using a sunless tanner is considered safer than tanning beds.” Joyce said. “However, spray tans have not been FDA approved because […] they may be inhaled and/or contact mucous membranes which have not been evaluated […] using a sunless at home tanner is the safest option. Some favorites are St. Tropez and L’Oréal Sublime Bronzer.”

I’ve often heard the light teases of, “you look like you rolled around in Doritos,” or the simple, “omg look at your hands!” Go ahead, make jokes—it’s funny when someone gets a bad tan, and I’ll be the first person to call myself out when it happens to me. But the streaky orange lines on the sides of my arms from a bad self tan is still better than the scars that lead down the entire left side of my back from laying out in the sun.

Unfortunately, my largest scar is the most visible, sitting right behind my left shoulder, and people ask about it pretty often. Actually, so often that my story has been shortened to, “skin cancer,” with a hand gesture as if I’m shooing away the conversation like, “don’t worry, I’m fine”. But if you get the full story, you get to journey back to eighth grade when I got my first irregular mole removed. Since then, I’ve seen the dermatologist every six months for routine examinations and have had four more procedures done, two of which were just in the past year. For years, part of my daily routine has been to apply “scar cream” on my back to blur the tissue damage, but the scars are obviously still visible enough to spark people’s curiosity to ask, “what happened to your back?”

I’m now a senior in college, and the topic of tanning beds hasn’t gone away. It’s hard for me to stand by and listen to my friends debate about getting into a tanning bed, when despite never even considering getting into one, I’ve suffered the worst-case-scenario consequences multiple times. It’s hard, because I don’t just stand by and listen. I remind them of my experience, and I remind them of all the facts, but all of that gets awkwardly put to the side. No one seems to take it seriously.

mary buzby

*“I’m still guilty of loving that look and feel after laying in the sun, but I’m working hard to break free from it.”*

I’m definitely not the perfect poster-child for this prominent issue—my experience with skin cancer continues. I’m still guilty of loving that look and feel after laying in the sun, but I’m working hard to break free from it. I’ve grown to understand the importance of caution regarding my sun exposure and am actively working to improve my self care/skin care regimen to include a lot more sun protection and SPF.

“Even using an SPF 15 decreases melanoma risk by 50 percent,” Dr. Joyce says. “Long term sunscreen use also helps decrease wrinkles and sun spots, and improve appearance”. I’m listening closely to this advice now, and as a young woman, it’s important for me to feel my best—but much more important for me to be my best: healthy and simply cancer-free.

Me and my friend, Zoe, visiting a beach in Italy while studying abroad

Tanning Culture and My Experience with Skin Cancer