I’m very, very white, no matter how much time I spend in the sun. When I’m at my darkest tan, I’m still the whitest girl in the room. So I don’t try, and I guess the good news is that I also don’t have a lot of wrinkles.
I think natually dark skin is very attractive, but over-tanned skin just gets weird and leathery and doesn’t look good. Natural tan from just being outdoors…okay, that’s good, because it’s not usually that ultra-dark, unnatural tan that some people get from tanning beds.
Upon further reflection, it appears I’m just wishy-washy. 
Generally, I find attractive those people who are my opposite–dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin. Yum.
I think tans look awful, and they seriously fuck up a person’s natural skin appearance. I feel sad whenever I see a woman who’s skin shows tanning damage, whether it’s excessive freckling or worse.
Voted attractive, but agree with already stated “depending on skin-tone” proviso. When I was living in Ireland I saw of lot of beautiful, pale-skinned freckly beauties plaster themselves orange with foundation and I thought it was a real shame as pale looked great on them.
I’m more olive-skinned and I sure as hell look better tanned. Everyone I’ve ever met, even relative strangers, tell me so, as does the mirror.
No. I’m very light-skinned and have NEVER used tanning booths. I’d prefer my skin not look like leather.
Not a black and white issue with me. sometimes I like shades of gray.
I don’t like tans from the sun worshippers or the people that spend a lot of time in tanning beds. A natural tan that gives a women a couple shades of darker color is sexy. Dark Bronze or Orange. Huge turnoff.
That’s me pale skin, long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. I agree with the not tanning to look younger. I’ve seen people my age who have tanned a lot and their skin looks like leather.
On some people yes, on others no.
Not at all. The wife has this whole Irish dark hair/green eyes/white skin thing going for her that I love. She’s not allowed to go tanning.
No way. After working for dermatologists for years, whenever I see someone with a tan, I react the same way some people do when they see someone smoking- Ew! Why would someone do that to themselves, on purpose?? It might look good now, but I know what their skin is going to look like years from now, and it won’t be pretty.
This x 1000. Plus, I am generally attracted to people with medium to dark skintones anyway, so I think the tan just adds to that.
I like the look of a tan, but of course it’s been exaggerated and overdone in general to the point of ridiculousness. What’s with that spray orange? Ick! I don’t go out in the sun any more if I can help it. My daughter prides herself on being white as skim milk most of the year, and she’s always annoyed when her other ethnic blood comes to the fore in the summer and she gets a tan just from walking outside once in a while, ha-ah!
I like to see tans on others if it is natural and not too deep.
That said, my natural skin tone is similar to this guy’s, and it takes just a few minutes in the sun for me to become noticeably darker. I tan very deeply, very quickly.
The problem is if I become very dark, i.e., a brown/bronze color, within a few days I begin to peel, and then I’m a splotchy red and brown, especially around my hairline and nose, which is not very attractive. My arms and legs don’t seem to peel, at least that I’ve noticed.
Pro tip: if it turns grey, you’re overdoing it. 
Tanning itself? Not so much.
Tan lines around the waist area can be very very hot, though.
I like the look of tans. Natural, I-was-weeding-the-garden tans on people who aren’t redheads.
I used to be out in the sun all day as a kid, and looked ans passed a full-blown Indian (dot, not feather) kiddo. Nowadays I’m indoors all the time so I burn like an almost-white person when I finally get out. I was outside for 10 minutes the other weekend without sunscreen and later felt like my skin was stir-frying for 3 days.
My “other” vote came because I was watching David Tutera’s show (women modeling bridal wear) today and thinking that the most attractive skin tone is an even skin tone, no matter whether it’s pale or tan.
But I’ve been spoiled by TV and movies. I know very few people IRL whose skin tone is even, either way. I don’t look at dresses on the red carpet – I look at skin and wonder how they got that way, whether it’s natural or sprayed on or whatever.
ETA: I’m freckled and have always been envious of the non-freckled.
It depends on the tan.
A tan which looks like it has been obtained by working outside, playing outside? Yes.
One which comes from “doing the shrimp”, 15min one side, 15 min the other, 15 min the first side… since the weather is warm enough for it? No.
Ora-glow? Hell no.
A little bit of color (“sun-kissed”?) is good; totally pasty white is not a great look in general.
However, deep tanning (real or booth) just tells me you’re going to be a wrinkly, freckly, cancerous mess in ten to twenty years. And fake tans are horrible - even if you’re not orange you just look vaguely dirty*, as if you’ve been lying in a bathtub full of coffee or something. It’s not good at all.
- and not in a good way.
depends. tan for strong athletic types. white vampire-like skin for soft-looking round-eyed, oval-faced little things in the suburbs.
Who’s cooking shrimp for that long?