Teenagers are increasing their chances of cancer with ‘sunburnt art’ tattoos

People are voluntarily getting intense sunburns to create designs on their skin.

Doctors are raising the alarm that young people are turning to a new kind of body art, where sun tan lotion is strategically applied to create patterns through sunburns – and it’s a practice with potentially deadly consequences.

Social media users are using hashtags like #sunburnart and #tantattoo to show off their sometimes quite intricately-detailed sunburns to the world.

“While it may be entertaining, it is intentionally exposing your skin to harmful ultraviolet radiation”, Dr. Thomas Rohrer, a dermatologist based in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, told CBS News. “It’s really obvious that sunburn does two things to you: it gives you lines and freckles and wrinkles and it also causes skin cancer, especially melanoma”.

Of particular concern, doctors say, is that sunburn art is often being created on areas of the body that are usually protected.

Mueller said she had a few bad sunburns in her lifetime. “That’s what a tan is. There’s nothing good about a tan”.

“The Skin Cancer Foundation strongly advises the public to avoid sunburns at all costs”. (And they always seem to happen right before you’ve gotta wear a strapless dress to a friend’s wedding, right?) But to actually do this intentionally is just plain silly (and, obviously, pretty dangerous).

“In fact, sustaining five or more sunburns in youth increases lifetime melanoma risk by 80 percent”.