# Super Tan, Cancer free! (what if...) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 4, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777 "2005-10-04T20:29:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/21 "2005-10-05T02:39:32Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > Except this isn’t a spray on tan or a rub on tan. This would be a REAL tan, sans the wrinkly, dry skin. You would be able to see what you look like, and alter the tone and contrasts of the tan to specific levels, and see the result in a computer simulation before getting an injection. Yes, but some facial structures don’t mesh well with tanned skin AT ALL. Like for instance really Waspy looking people. And I wouldn’t trust people not to know that they shouldn’t have a tan; people aren’t always the best judges of their own looks. That’s why there’s so many people with D boobs on tiny frames, or snub noses on faces that are more angular. Not to mention Asians who “fix” their eyes or white people who slant theirs (yeah, that surgery really exists). Why can’t people just be happy with what they’ve got as long as it’s not deformed or disfigured? I am pretty across-the-board anti-plastic surgery though, so YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/22 "2005-10-05T03:06:06Z")
Forget the $1000. There’s no way that I would pay that much on my looks… but to be able to outglow a Disco-era George Hamilton? That’s something I could go for! Wow, I didn’t know that I could even _conceive_ of being vain. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/23 "2005-10-05T07:40:03Z")
The skin on my arms and belly is a nice golden colour. My face and legs are pasty pale. And when I’m tanned, I feel like I look thinner and am more confident. So, depending on the price, I’d be all over it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/24 "2005-10-05T08:10:34Z")
If the process could be modified to result in a multicoloured pattern; perhaps a nice bold tartan or a tasteful geometric motif, I’d be interested, otherwise not. ---
**Author:** ![Sengkelat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Sengkelat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sengkelat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/25 "2005-10-05T17:31:47Z")
I definitely look better tan, but I’m currently a quite pasty white. (I’ve been called “the palest Chinese guy on the planet”) I’d pay for a safe, long lasting tan, but every 6 months is too much hassle, and $1,000 is way too much. If it were a few hundred once every two years, then I’d want to. I’d probably never get around to it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/26 "2005-10-05T19:22:22Z")
I definitely look better with a light tan, but $1000 is too much – the cost would have to be comparable to going to a tanning salon (ok, maybe a little more, but not $1000!). I like the idea of it lasting 6 months, though, so I could be tan for the whole summer plus the end of spring/beginning of fall. 🙂 So if it were more affordable, yeah, I’d do it. I don’t know about 18 months: I’d get pretty used to seeing myself that tan after that long, and if the company were to go out of business or something by the end of the 18 months I’d be kinda sad. Plus, there’s the whole “being tan in the winter” thing that always looks a little wrong to me. Maybe if I lived someplace where it doesn’t snow… 😉 > [@amaranta](#): > > The skin on my arms and belly is a nice golden colour. My face and legs are pasty pale. How’d you manage that? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/27 "2005-10-05T21:12:24Z")
Tanning is so-o-o-o-o-o last century. Go for blue, babe! Now, **Dilbert** is hardly an authorative cite, but he said the other day that a suntan has an SPF of 4. [http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20050918.html](http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20050918.html) ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/28 "2005-10-05T22:56:17Z")
Blue? Green! Yeah, while we are doing gene therapy, place some photosynththetic cells in my epidermis. Green, the new tan! ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/29 "2005-10-06T12:51:52Z")
I might do it if the cost was a little more in my price range. Maybe $250. I burn very easily, but with a decent tan from the doc’s office I would be able to do a lot more outdoors stuff without the risk of sunburn and blisters. For example _with_ SPF 45 I have gotten sunburned in a little over an hour. If I don’t put on sunblock and I mow the lawn, we can be talking blisters. I might do it, but not for reasons of vanity, unless you think not wanting peeling skin and blisters is vain. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/30 "2005-10-06T14:35:22Z")
If it lasted more than 18 months or cost less I would turn myself into a green-eyed blond Beyonce. But for that price I could do spray tans. I’ve never been a tanner since it gives me freckles which I do not like. I would prefer darker skin but I don’t think I will ever spend 1000 dollars in one shot for anything cosmetic, and I am even too cheap to go get a Charlize Theron nose let alone darker skin. I would like to fantazise about spending the thousand dollars on something more fun. I would do it if it cost 40 dollars every 3 months. It would need to cost less than a haircut. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777/31 "2005-10-06T14:41:06Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Tanning is so-o-o-o-o-o last century. Go for blue, babe! [Yay!](http://www.blueman.com/about_bmg/index.shtml) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-tan-cancer-free-what-if/324777.md?page=1)