# What, exactly, is a sun tan?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-sun-tan/252522>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2004, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-sun-tan/252522 "2004-06-28T10:05:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2004, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-sun-tan/252522/1 "2004-06-28T10:05:27Z")

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A sun tan… what exactly is it?

Is the darkening of skin a sign of burning (and thus damage) to the skin, or is it (as I heard argued yesterday) merely melanoma ‘rising’ to the surface of cells to help further protect the skin (and thus is a perfectly natural response to being in the sun)?

Is a tan considered healthy, or at least not unhealthy, from a cellular perspective? What process do individual cells undergo in the act of ‘achieving’ a tan?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-sun-tan/252522/2 "2004-06-28T10:42:33Z")

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[How suntans work](http://travel.howstuffworks.com/sunscreen.htm)