Despite rather frenzied and frantic efforts throughout National Skin Cancer Month to drive home the real dangers of UV exposure to the public, a new trend taking over social media illustrates that much of the advice has been ignored. “While it may be entertaining, it is intentionally exposing your skin to harmful ultraviolet radiation”, explained Dr. Thomas Rohrer, a dermotologist who recently spoke about the trend with CBS. ” “Sunburns cause DNA damage to the skin, accelerate skin ageing, and increase your lifetime skin cancer risk””.
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The Skin Cancer Foundation released a statement today denouncing sunburn art. “A sunburn is not only painful – it’s risky, and comes with consequences”. Suffice to say, health experts and those blessed with a modicum of common sense are more concerned with the dramatic increase in melanoma skin cancer risk that even a single prolonged session in the sun can trigger. “On average, a person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns”.
We’ve all had weird tan lines or a splotch of pink skin after missing a spot while applying sunscreen.
The process of getting “Sunburn art”, requires you to smear sunblock in a specific pattern after which you need to lie down in the sun, such as the skin around the pattern grows dark, forming a clear, distinct and temporary tattoo.
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“There’s no such thing as a safe tan and there’s definitely no such thing as a safe burn”.
