Thread: A Safe Tan...

....only comes from a bottle or a spray booth.

I just got a biopsy today for what could potentially be a melanoma. I was a tanorexic for about two years and recently stopped when I noticed a funny mole on my arm.

I will be fine. It was caught early on, and even if it is cancer, the doc says it'll be treatable with a minor surgical excision. No biggie. An ugly scar is nothing compared to other potential fates of leaving a melanoma untreated. But I just wanted to take a moment to remind all of you lovelies to 1. wear your sunscreen everyday, and 2. avoid those darned awful tanning beds like the friggen' plague.

Afraid of sunless tanners? Understandable. But ST's have come a long way! L'Oreal's product line gives such beautiful results, people ask if I use a tanning bed.

If you're pale, embrace it! Stop calling it fish-belly white. Stop referring to yourself as pasty. You're alabaster. You're moonlight. You're the stuff Loreena McKennit's album cover artwork is made of!

Clients giving you sh*t because "ZOMG!!!!!!!!! UR 2 PALE!!!!! ALL ETHNIC PEOPLE ARE DARK!!!!!!111121!!!!!!!!!!" ? Kindly point them toward Lebanese diva, Haifa Wehbe:



OK, I'll stop. But please be safe and think twice before you tan. And get to know all of your moles so you can detect any changes early on.

That is all. Off to the store to buy some sunscreen and Man Tan.

I think you're right. I never felt embaraced when I perform because I'm pale... I just feel it when I cross the street, wearing a skirt, and I listen to stupid comments from stupid men (it's very usual where I live, especially because people are mostly darker than me...).

I am so sorry to hear your news. I am crossing my fingers that the biopsy results come back favorably.

Thank you for sharing this important message. I really can't stress it enough. My mom used to make me go outside all the time as a kid, without sunscreen, so that I would get tan (she's a tanorexic herself). I am covered in dysplastic nevi (funny-shaped moles) that I have to watch like a hawk now, and it scares the crap out of me.

While working as a radiation therapist, I treated enough skin cancer (squamous cell and basal cell carcinomas) to put me in the "scared straight" program. While I used to only wear SPF 2 or 4, now I never would think to spend any outdoor time without at least SPF 30 sunscreen.

I never saw primary melanoma patients, because melanoma doesn't respond to radiation. I saw plenty of melanoma patients after their cancer had spread to their brains, lungs, and other parts of their body, though.

My "favorite" scared straight story is when one afternoon I was doing a CAT scan on a gentleman for his radiation treatment planning. He had a basal cell skin cancer on his scalp, which normally a very treatable cancer. However, he'd let it go for a while before he came in to the doctor. As the oncologist was looking at the CAT scan over my shoulder, he shouted an expletive as he suddenly noticed on the pictures that the skin cancer had eaten a hole clear through the man's skull. Suddenly, this was no longer a matter of someone who could be treated with some surface radiation; this patient was going to need a neurosurgeon. If that doesn't scare someone into religiously wearing sunscreen, I don't know what will!

Another vote for L'Oreal products...they are fantastic. I love me some Sublime Bronze! It's a pain in the butt to apply and maintain, yes, but it's a lot less of a hassle than cancer.

And there ends my PSA!

glad everythings alright tho.
which reminds me, i need to set up an appointment with a dermo to check some stuff out..*sigh*. i'm hoping it's nothing dangerous cuz i've had these for EVER (like since i was young forever and they haven't increased in size or anything) but ya never know, specially since my aunt died of melanoma..blahhh :(

Yes.

As many of you know, I am just now starting to look normal after two months of having my nose look like someone chewed it up and spit it out....a basal cell carcinoma on my nose turned out to be much bigger than anyone thought when they went in to take it out (Mohs surgery). I ended up with a quarter-size hole on the tip of my nose that went all the way down to the cartilage (they actually had to remove some cartilage because it was cancerous). It is only because of my amazing plastic surgeon that I look remotely normal today. He did a skin graft from the top of my nose to fill in the hole because it was too big to just stitch up....it was NOT fun.

I also have a dysplasic nevi on my back that I need to go back and have more removed. Because they weren't sure they got it all the first time.

I, too, was tanorexic in college. I literally went tanning every day - the cheap tanning salong by my college had 5 tans for $20, which is cheap even for a poor college student.

Now I get airbrushed. Yes, it's much more expensive ($40 a pop, lasts about a week), but I only do it for special occasions. And it won't kill me....

... and I'm sure you're gonna be fine, Satin.

Yes, I saw you tweeting about this, Satin. I am so glad that you will be okay.

I am more in the olive complexion department but that is still not safe enough. But then I foolishly started going for a couple of years to a tanning bed at the gym and I got a couple of funny growths, real teeny ones, which luckily went away.

Satin, you are right - the sun is not really your friend unless you do have sunscreen. Then the right nutrients do come through for you. But tanning beds have absolutely nothing to offer you at all except T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

The nice thing about the digital age is that you can photograph your entire skin surface and keep a record. I've got many, many, many moles and very dark freckles - not dangerous in and off themselves, but the potential is there. I've been having my husband take photos of me for a few years now and storing them on both hard drive and cd. Once a year, I pull them out and look at them side by side. I haven't seen any changes, but I'd prefer to be diligent now, rather than sorry later.

Read this on Facebook too. I hope this all works out and I couldn't agree with everyone on this.

I must admit i was diligent on wearing sunscreen on a daily basis, until I got sunburned during cloudy weather on a San Diego beach. I now wear it every time I go outside. I can't do 30 spf either or I will still burn, and I am medium beige. I wear 50 spf. For the baby I purchased 80 spf.

My mother has moles all over - she use to use baby oil and iodine with the foil blanket to tan when I was little. She is ivory. I use to have to peel her skin off of her back when she burned. A couple of time I remember she burned herself so bad that she had fluid filled blisters on her upper chest area. Craziness how the awareness has started happening in what the 90s?

Originally Posted by bdaddiction

My mother has moles all over - she use to use baby oil and iodine with the foil blanket to tan when I was little. She is ivory. I use to have to peel her skin off of her back when she burned. A couple of time I remember she burned herself so bad that she had fluid filled blisters on her upper chest area. Craziness how the awareness has started happening in what the 90s?

I used to have to peel my mom's back, too. GROSS!!

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

I used to have to peel my mom's back, too. GROSS!!

Ha! No wonder why I am a nurse, taking care of my mom's sunburn problems during childhood. lmao!

Thanks for all the kind wishes, guys. I should be OK, but there's always that Minus One ..c::

It's scary, because I'm 26, but I remember being a kid, running around outside and going to the beach and the town pool, sans sunscreen. Sun protection just wasn't a big deal, prior to about the mid-nineties. My parents weren't trying to kill me or ruin my skin - they just didn't know better.

And it doesn't help that every damned gym membership includes tanning, these days. I tried it a few times out of curiosity and got hooked. It was a perk that I perceived myself as more "exotic" looking with bronzed skin. I did this for about 4 months out of the year, for 2 years or so. NOT cool.

I just know that if I didn't have this stupid hangup about not looking ethnic enough for clients, I probably would have been smart enough to stop baking my hide much sooner.

So what are your favorite snarky comebacks for people who tell you to "go get some sun?"

satin & daniela: glad you are going to be ok. how very scary

i also used to bake in the sun. the first time i went to the middle east, my aunt missed me at the airport when she came to pick me up because i had become so tan she didn't recognize me. keeping my fingers crossed & out of the sun.

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

So what are your favorite snarky comebacks for people who tell you to "go get some sun?"

restaurant customer"you are so pale..."
me "...and cancer- free" or "natural born goth" or "you don't like my cubicle tan?"
i try to cut them off before they start in. you know what they're gonna say.

I tell people I can't tan because I'm half-albino and half-vampire.

I remember getting badly burned a few times when I was a kid, so I always wear sun block if I'm going to be outside for more than 15 minutes. I've never had a tan in my life. I'm either sun-burned or pale, unless I've used a sunless tanner.

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

Thanks for all the kind wishes, guys. I should be OK, but there's always that Minus One ..c::

It's scary, because I'm 26, but I remember being a kid, running around outside and going to the beach and the town pool, sans sunscreen. Sun protection just wasn't a big deal, prior to about the mid-nineties. My parents weren't trying to kill me or ruin my skin - they just didn't know better.

And it doesn't help that every damned gym membership includes tanning, these days. I tried it a few times out of curiosity and got hooked. It was a perk that I perceived myself as more "exotic" looking with bronzed skin. I did this for about 4 months out of the year, for 2 years or so. NOT cool.

I just know that if I didn't have this stupid hangup about not looking ethnic enough for clients, I probably would have been smart enough to stop baking my hide much sooner.

So what are your favorite snarky comebacks for people who tell you to "go get some sun?"

dude, screw the clients. seriously. at least u have the ability to look 'ethnic' enough (w/e that means in their view). i'm a tall, pale-ish, dirty blonde hair hazel-green eyed bellydancer, flamenco, bollywood, polynesian and samba dancer who can't pass off as any of the above as "ethnic". but that doesn't mean people don't wanna see me dance any of the above nor has anyone ever said i shouldn't be doing what i do because of it. i guess this might be a real issue in CT but i have yet to hear any of those horror stories here in Orlando. not saying it doesn't exist, it might, but Orlando is such a ethnic mix of evrything and evrybody that the client would be sure to get a big F-U if they even dared snark at a dancer's looks!

People tell me I am pale all the time--and it's not a compliment! My dad is the worst. He lives in Florida and has an adrenal disease that makes him super tan. My stepmom is bad too. She's in her fifties and surfs for hours in the mid-day sun. Her sisters and her mother have all had skin cancer. The kind that is "easy" to treat. My stepmom still doesn't get it and she is so wrinkly!

My mom on the other hand is a natural strawberry blonde and has stayed out of the sun since the early eighties. For a 53 year old her skin is awesome, especially compared to my other set of parents.

I am doomed though. I am fair-skinned with lots of moles. I do tan, but I will also burn after 30 minutes in the sun. I spent ages 2-5 in Miami and Orlando...always at the beach or in the pool. I was a water baby and probably no sunscreen. I also did the tanning beds my senior year of high school.

I just went to the derm and she told me I have an extremely high risk of getting skin cancer. Right before my trip to Florida! Thanks! I wore SPF 50 the whole time, I wore a huge sun hat and I sat under parasols. I still got some sun but no burns.

I'm going to have to be vigilant for the rest of my life. My dad and my stepmom think I am paranoid...but we'll see...

Originally Posted by Karnak

I tell people I can't tan because I'm half-albino and half-vampire.

Good one! ..l;,..l;,..l;,

As Satin's fellow Celtic-twilight-Loreena-McKennitt-album-cover girl, I have luminescent white skin as well. Which really is okay...and honestly racism is racism no matter who it's directed at. I wouldn't go up to anyone and say 'go get a skin lightener!' Yeesh.

Relatedly, my best friend who is African American is also Scottish. That always confuses people, because they have an 'image' of what 'Celtic' is supposed to look like. So you see this in a lot of areas.

I hope everything goes okay, Satin. It's scary when things we used to do catch up with us (I say as someone far too young to be diagnosed with degenerative joint disease - yes, fighting can hurt you even if you never lost). However, it'll keep me out of the cage and out of trouble.

I think all different kinds of people can be beautiful, and if others are going to be prejudiced, well...that's their own issue. Besides, I LIKE how I look. Orientalism (taken to the extreme) is never a good quality.

How did tans ever become desirable anyway? Used to be that was a sign you were from the lower classes because it indicated you had to do work outside. Pale, milky white was what was considered most beautiful for Caucasians. How did that flip around? ..c::

It flipped around in the 1930's when more wealthy Americans were vacationing to the French Riviera. They'd come back from their luxurious holidays and, hence, their golden glows became a status symbol to show that you have the time and money to partake in leisure activities.

Obscure trivia: Coco Chanel is actually attributed with starting this trend.

Not sure about the flip, Darbia, but I am almost certain Hollywood had something to do with it. You have a good point, though. While I was growing up, my mother didn't like me hanging out with my brother outside because I tan very easily. As it turns out, she and my grandmother both have suffered from skin cancer in recent years, and my mother doesn't like being outside.

Because then it became a sign that you didn't spend all day inside working but had the time to go outside and work on your tan.

I've worked mostly in health care and actually had professionals stop me and tell me that I looked "pale and jaundiced"! Sorry, that's my complexion-not alabaster, not cold white (which I love) but sallow Eastern European white. Made worse by my black hair and yellow/brown/green eyes.

I actually did myself a huge favor by going red! Truly: the paler hair makes my skin and eyes look more natural.

Originally Posted by BreaMorgiane

As Satin's fellow Celtic-twilight-Loreena-McKennitt-album-cover girl, I have luminescent white skin as well. Which really is okay...and honestly racism is racism no matter who it's directed at. I wouldn't go up to anyone and say 'go get a skin lightener!' Yeesh.

thank you!! i don't get why people flipped out when they saw those commercials for 'whitening' cream (if i can find the link to the blog i saw, i'll post) but they don't realize tanning is the exact same thing just in the other direction/extreme

I recall an art history professor saying that tans became popular after Tutankhamun's tomb was found and Egypt-o-mania hit the Western world. It was also a sign of leisure, and secretaries would tan on the roofs of their offices during their breaks.

Before that, pale was in because it showed that people were rich enough to stay inside out of the sun. I think the ancient Romans even used lead on their skin to make their skin look paler.

Originally Posted by Karnak

I recall an art history professor saying that tans became popular after Tutankhamun's tomb was found and Egypt-o-mania hit the Western world. It was also a sign of leisure, and secretaries would tan on the roofs of their offices during their breaks.

Before that, pale was in because it showed that people were rich enough to stay inside out of the sun. I think the ancient Romans even used lead on their skin to make their skin look paler.

that's interesting. just like being fatter was 'in' because it showed you had money for delicious food ..l;,

Originally Posted by zfejzic

that's interesting. just like being fatter was 'in' because it showed you had money for delicious food ..l;,

I heard that one too! ..l;,

We should be VERY aware that big companies are laughing all the way to the bank,
because around the world they successfully advertise products to make women and men feel uncomfortable with their natural hues.

Behold L'oréals ads,with different target groups:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an-geww0s0M]YouTube - L'OREAL PARiS White Perfect 柔和滋潤乳霜 SPF20/PA+++ - �嘉欣[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j2pBK1R3Io]YouTube - L'oréal "sublime bronze"[/ame]

Olay:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmrBylLsfE8]YouTube - Olay. Touch of Sun[/ame]
Snow White is "too dark"-get boohs from her audience!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIWLKC4TWug"]YouTube - I luv you Siri[/ame]

And the men are not spared either!

Here in Sweden the men are spending hours tanning,even shooting up Melanotan,
yet this commercial tells us young hip asian guys should be as white as possible to find a girlfriend!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51zzwv7BWHg]YouTube - Nivea for men, whitening[/ame]

Emma-Bessa, thanks for posting those clips. I've been thinking about that subject all night, how women go to such great lengths to mask what is really part of their heritage. Sadly, I'm not exempt.

Disturbing thing is, a lot of those lightening creams contain chemical agents that are notorious for their toxicity to the liver when absorbed through the skin.

As Brea and Zana have mentioned, Orientalism to any extreme is just kind of sad. I can't decide whether I think it's ethnocentric or pejorative to real people of Arab descent, or a little bit of both.

When I was a blonde, I was constantly fired from gigs because I didn't look "authentic" enough. By people who wouldn't know authentic BD from something in a Britney Spears video.

On the one hand, commercial viability is an absolute priority in this business. But when it comes down to an issue of skin color, an issue that can threaten your health (as it has mine) and perpetuate ignorance, that's a different matter.

I wonder how we start communicating this message to clients? Will we ever get this point across? Or does the Orientalist aesthetic stereotype operate in tandem with the "novelty act" stigma? Will the stereotypes dissolve along with the mainstreaming of the dance?

It's all important to think about, seeing that our dance celebrates a diverse culture and a diverse group of dancers.

I live in the country with the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world and thus far none of my damage appears to be cancerous. I do like telling people the smudge on my nose is not dropped eyeshadow, it's probably cancer, though. (It isn't.)

If people tell me to get a tan I usually tell them quite truthfully that I have one. When I still wore a watch I could show them. I weather, I don't go brown. In the summer I am a slightly darker shade of pale than normal.

Fortunately most people in NZ are not morons when it comes to tanning any more and will fake-bake if they want a tan.

Oh, I see the problem: we live in the wrong places for our skin color. ..l;,