Why You Might Be Addicted to Tanning

4 min read

Tanmaxxing, when you try to tan as much as possible, is now gaining momentum on TikTok. People are going on walks or lying outside when the UV hits its peak during the day. Some are rubbing carrot oil all over their bodies, which allegedly uses the natural beta-carotene from carrot extract to accelerate tanning. All of these behaviors put you at risk of skin cancer such as melanoma.

Evan Rieder, MD, a dermatologist and psychologist in New York, says that the pursuit of a tan often goes beyond pure aesthetics. In a recent video on his Instagram, he said that tanning is actually a form of addiction. Below, we spoke with him about the psychological reasons for tanning and he parsed evidence from a 2018 study that found tanning to be addictive in a similar way to substances.

Is tanning psychological?

It isn’t for everyone, but for some people, it is. It’s very nuanced, actually. Part of it is culture-dependent, where you grew up and what your aesthetic ideals are, and those can change depending on your family environment and your friends. For a lot of people, the appearance of tan skin, especially in Western countries, is desirable. Maybe you have more free time—you’re able to relax and go by the pool or go in the water and have a life that’s a little bit more luxurious and relaxed. When skin is darker, people tend to look slimmer and see better contour on their muscles and the body.

In other countries, tan skin is not looked upon very favorably at all, and some of that’s due to the fact that there is a greater understanding of the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays on the skin, in terms of aging and cancers. But in some societies, tan skin means people are more likely to be laborers, and they work out in sunny conditions, like on farms, which may be considered to be less socially desirable.

In your video, you mentioned that tanning could make your body secrete a reward hormone. How does that work?

Skin is unique among organs of the body in that it has its own stress axis. When you get stressed out and you’re in fight or flight mode, your blood pressure goes up, your hormone systems change, and it affects many different organ systems internally. Now, the skin has its own little stress axis, and that can be manipulated with skin care or topical pharmaceutical products. And there’s data to show that ultraviolet light can actually have impacts on skin beyond just appearance.

When ultraviolet light hits the skin, there’s a molecule that gets broken down into several different particles. One of those is a melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which makes your skin tan. Another one is beta-endorphin. When people talk about an endorphin rush, it’s the same molecule. In certain individuals [with addictive personalities], when ultraviolet light hits their skin, that peripheral beta-endorphin can go into the bloodstream and up to the brain and cause a sense of reward, much like cocaine or sugary snacks that release dopamine in your brain. There are people who tan so much that their skin is already dark, but they keep going into the booth, and you’re like, Why are you doing that? It’s because it actually makes them feel good.

If somebody has an addiction to tanning, what can they do to stop?

Typically, that question never comes up. These people don’t show up to a dermatologist’s office or to an addiction psychiatrist’s office looking for help because they don’t really recognize it as a problem. It’s an active area of debate in psychiatry because it’s an intriguing area in addictions. It’s not a truly diagnosable addictive disorder. All the behaviors are there, and now you have some of the biological data for it, too. It has to come through education about the effects of the sun on skin.

“Tanmaxxing” is big on social media. Are you seeing those effects firsthand?

I typically don’t see those patients in my practice. I hear what’s going on and have my finger somewhat on the pulse of what’s going on on social media. If people are doing it, other people will follow. People have these little niche habits that they used to do alone in their tanning salon and their community, and now their voices can be amplified and people can see their videos globally. You can imagine how this could spread.

What are the risks for someone who is tanmaxxing or addicted to tanning?

While the appearance of light skin that gets tanned from tanning may be more pleasing, the long-term effects of that are very deleterious to the body. The rates of skin aging and skin cancer are both very high. UVA light penetrates very deeply into the skin and denatures your collagen. There is a bigger risk of melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.