On my volleyball team here at the 
and involved a bathing suit. I soon learned that it was
instead the artificial form that twelve of my fourteen teammates practiced, the
lone opposers being an extremely fair-skinned girl
and me. I choose not to attend
these social outings to the tanning salon since I know it is my death
wish. With my father being a melanoma
survivor and my mom also being diagnosed with nonmelanoma, skin cancer runs in my genes. At age 17 I had a biopsy indicate a pre-cancer basal cell spot
on my back that required approximately two inches of my skin to be removed
along with seventeen stitches. After
expressing my too close for comfort experience with skin cancer, I hoped I
could sway some of the girls from their unhealthy habits. To my confusion though, my insights have in
no way changed their thoughts. I know I
have opened their eyes to a lot more information about skin cancer than they
have previously known, but now instead of announcing their departure for a
tanning salon, they simply state, “well I’m off to
get skin cancer!”
Therefore, it is obvious that
the girls on my team know the risks they are taking. They know they are making themselves more
vulnerable to skin cancer, yet they still insist on being tan. Why is that?
According to researcher Marilynn Larkin, the “awareness of the dangers
doesn’t alter behavior in the face of enormous pressures to conform and achieve
the ‘right’ image.” According to a
research study of 317 college students, 104 male and 213 female, 85% simply
claimed they “look better with a tan.”
Out of this group, 60% had used an artificial tanning device with 54% of
that group using it one or more times a week (Young 4). Using research information with indoor
tanning device participants, studies have found that the users of tanning beds
are “2.5 times more likely to develop basal
cell carcinoma, and 1.5 times more susceptible to squamous
cell carcinoma”
(Tanning-bed). Clearly tanning bed users
are almost a breed of their own. Not
only are their risks of skin cancer unique to the average American, but their
mentality is also different. To most,
their desire to be tan is a psychologically unachievable notion. The term “tan-orexia” has been
coined to describe tanners who encounter a similar misconception of body
image as sufferers of anorexia. Author
Katie Subach claims, “Although others notice the tan, the tanner feels the need to get even
darker.” Toni Lee, a former teammate of mine, suffered that very same
delusion. No matter how tan she became,
it was never sufficient. She would
receive compliment after compliment about her tan, but she always insisted she
was pale and would follow 
up with the announcement of
an upcoming tanning session. One day,
Toni was looking at some pictures of my girlfriends and me at home, and she
said, “Living in