I’m grateful for many things in 2025, and one of those things is my algorithm never shows me sunbaking, sun tanning or tan line content. That would be because when I see it, I report it for self-harm or health misinformation.
According to the Melanoma Institute, an Australian is diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes, and one Australian dies from melanoma every six hours, which is horrific for a mostly preventable disease.
Not to be the fun police, but I grew up with that scary melanoma health campaign. You know the one. “Tanning is skin cells in trauma,” and “There’s nothing healthy about a tan”.
Unfortunately, I’m realising I might be in a bubble. On TikTok, young women are intentionally baking themselves in the sun to get tan lines, then showing them off in strapless tops. They always look sunburnt.
You can even download apps (that shall remain nameless) that design your tanning schedule and encourage you to go outside to tan on high-UV days.
Videos outlining specific products used for the darkest tan run rampant. GRWM to make melanomas! Girls who can’t tan in the sun (or wisely choose not to) are getting the look by fake tanning in a bikini. For real.
Since it seems that plenty of Gen Z didn’t get the message that “there’s nothing healthy about a tan,” let’s take a quick science lesson.
When UV radiation hits our skin cells, the energy warps the DNA, leaving a kink that can give rise to mutations and, ultimately, skin cancer.
This is why the Cancer Council doesn’t recommend anyone to spend extended time outside when the UV index is three or higher, regardless of skin tone. Warped DNA. Mutations. Mutations upon mutations.
The thing is, despite absolutely wrecking your skin, a tan is still seen as healthy and desirable. Before there were gorgeous girls to follow on TikTok and Instagram, we admired the coolest girl at school — perpetually tanned from working at the solarium nights and weekends. At least then, we had mass media messaging to warn us about the dangers (and thankfully, commercial solariums were banned in Australia in 2025).
In the age of influencers and content creators, what are social platforms doing to prevent the spread of dangerous tanning content? Clearly, not enough. Let me walk you through some common objections taken from real TikTok comments.
“The sun is actually healing”
FACT: UV radiation is a Group 1 carcinogen, according to the World Health Organisation, alongside things like diesel engine exhaust, tobacco smoke and gamma radiation. So, not really. Sorry!
“I’ll just get it cut out”
FACT: Even the less aggressive forms of skin cancer are quite involved and painful to remove, and what if you get one on the tip of your nose? Is that tan worth living with a missing chunk of nose?
My dad’s had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed thanks to a lifetime of outdoor work, and kindly shared this image of his hand all bruised and stitched up after the latest:
You also need to have regular skin checks to find skin cancers to “just cut out”, so please stay up to date – talk to your GP. Especially if you see changes, new spots or something looks out of place.
“I’m olive and that only happens to pale people”
FACT: You have an intermediate risk of skin cancer, unless you have a personal or family history of skin cancer, lots of moles, atypical moles or are taking immunosuppressant medicines. Then you have a high risk.
“I’m brown or Black and that only happens to pale people”
FACT: You have the lowest risk of skin cancer, it’s true. However, sun protection is still recommended for extended time outside when the UV is 3 or more.
“I’ll be old and ugly anyway so I may as well be hot now”
FACT: Have you already forgotten about Natalie Fornasier, who died of melanoma in 2023 at age 28? Or Wes Bonny, who died in 2010 at age 26? Besides, you’d be hotter without that gross ageist attitude – would you say that to your mother or grandmother?
Of course, many skin types will just tan in the sun regardless of intention or time spent, but that’s not the issue. The issue is intentionally spending more time in the sun than is safe just to get a tan.
At the end of the day, with two in three Australians predicted to be diagnosed with skin cancer by age 70, you’re taking on lasting damage for a tan that will fade by autumn.
Celebrating pale skin isn’t the right answer, either
And another thing. It’s kind of weird for white people tanning to be lectured by other white people about “embracing your pale skin”, and how “pale skin is beautiful too”.
I get it. I had comments about my “ghostliness” growing up, but think about how homogenous many regions of Australia are to this day, and how racist we can be as a nation.
Not to mention that sun safety messaging hasn’t typically given explicit, specific risk factors and recommendations for olive, brown and black skin. Indeed, guidelines accounting for all skin tones were only published in 2023. Yep.
Check the table below for that info. Your natural skin tone is perfect regardless of its lightness or darkness, and you don’t need to be tan to look good.
I personally haven’t used fake tan in about a year and it was actually another Tiktok trend that helped me feel comfortable with my natural skin tone — figuring out my colour season! Now I don’t have half a wardrobe of clothes that only suit me with a fake tan. Surely it’s easier to get comfortable in your own skin than it is to feel inadequate and actively harm yourself to fit in.
With all the “ins and outs for 2025” lists circulating online right now, I’d love to leave intentional sun tanning, along with its cancer-creating cousins, solariums and “collariums”, where they belong: firmly out.
You can check the UV index and your sun protection recommendations with the Cancer Council’s SunSmart app for iPhone or Android.
