As the spring and summer months approach, many people are starting to go tanning to get their skin ready for the sun and warmer weather. I’m not going to deny that tan skin is more attractive than pasty white skin (no offense to those who are really pale), but when there are thousands of reports on how tanning causes skin cancer, why do people purposely make their lives shorter by going tanning?

     One possibility would be to try to look like the taller-looking versions of oompa-loompas from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who live on the Jersey Shore (which, if that’s really why you go tanning, then you should just stop. Or maybe people like being in loads of pain after being in a tanning bed for too long and for the next week, that person complains non-stop about how much pain he/she is in from getting so burnt.

     Some people have a slightly more logical excuse for going tanning. “I go tanning because I don’t want to fry on Spring Break,” stated senior Emily Campbell. Well, if people use sunscreen on the vacation, then they should be fine. And, although some people think it’s dorky to use sunscreen, at least those who use it don’t look like lobsters and don’t have to worry as much about skin cancer.

     “I don’t go tanning because it’s unhealthy, and I don’t want to get premature wrinkling,” said senior Jill Carps. That statement also brings up a good point. Why would anyone want to have the skin of an 80-year-old at the age of 30? Yeah, people can get facelifts and such to get rid of wrinkles, but why waste all of that money when it could easily be saved by not using tanning beds.

     “Tanning, like sunburns, attacks the skin’s DNA, producing genetic defects that may cause skin cancer” (skincancer.org). This is from just one of the many articles about the dangers of going tanning, and most all of them say the same thing: tanning is directly related to getting skin cancer. So, why do people do it?