In present society, physical appearance plays a major role in each individual’s life. In recent years, appearance has become very important and many people go day by day trying to make their appearance ideal. As people search for this unrealistic perfect image, these specific individuals endure various treatments and one of the most popular trends is exposing oneself to artificial tanning. This specific type of tanning only takes a couple of minutes to acquire a desired, flawless skin tone. However, the truth about artificial tanning needs to open each person’s eyes in society. Has artificial tanning increased skin cancer occurrences? Do tanning beds, in fact cause skin cancer? In the United States, skin cancer is the most frequent form of cancer. Over two million individuals are diagnosed annually for more than 3.5 million skin cancers (“Skin Cancer Facts” 1). The main reasons are personal ignorance and pride, and the desire to obtain the perfect tan. Melanoma is the most serious, dangerous, and deadliest type of skin cancer. It is a disease in which skin cells lose the ability to divide and grow normally. Since the artificial tanning business leads to confusion in society concerning the conflict of skin cancer, the confusion poses potential conflicts to arise. While some people ignore the warning signs of tanning beds, each individual should think twice before exposing themselves to ultraviolet radiation.
As the school year draws to an end, many of our teenage and young adult minds start to drift off planning out summer activities and tropical places to visit. Each individual can see themselves at the beach playing volleyball, swimming in the beach, or relaxing on the beach by soaking up the warm sunshine. As each person at the beach is enjoying summer, they once in a while take a glance at the bronzed bodies walking around and probably think how attractive those dark tans look.