Looking tanfastic

I'm so pale!" The bleached-blond girl in front of me was whining to her mom about her Malibu Barbie skin tone.

"Well, you were just at the salon two days ago," her mom replied. When I heard she felt pale after two days of not tanning, my ears perked up. I'm getting a certificate in neuroscience and I mainly focus on addictions, especially sweet-food addictions and disorders like bulimia and anorexia. Suddenly another compulsive disorder had just dropped right in front of me at Quaker Bridge Mall. As it turns out, it's not just a Jersey thing either, this disorder plagues thousands of mostly young females internationally.

Many of us have had one or a few brief trysts with the tanning salon. Our dress for senior prom was strapless, and we had horrendous bikini lines from spring break. Our curiosity finally got the best of us, and we tried it out after a particularly orange and non-mystical experience with Mystic Tan. These rare visits aren't likely to have big effects other than a slightly pink booty, but people around the world are visiting tanning salons once a day if not more to avoid feeling "pasty."

Compulsive tanning poses a serious health risk. In May 2004, BBC News reported in "Young 'Tanorexics' Risking Cancer" that a study found that more than 100 people die annually in the UK from tanning bed overuse. Most people are fully aware that tanning can cause cancer and will probably turn their skin leathery and wrinkled prematurely. This knowledge, however, doesn't preclude salon visitors and beach bums from frying their skin multiple times a week. So what is it that's so great about tanning?

Here comes the part where I make a confession. A friend and I have been known to hit up the salon before semi-formal events, formal events and sometimes just at the end of crappy weeks when it would be nice to just have someone look at you and say, "Hey. You look tan."

I feel a little guilty about it. The angel on my shoulder is a grumpy old doctor doing lots of brow-furrowing and finger-shaking, telling me that I'm going to get cancer. I do, however, wear lip balm with SPF when I go to the tanning salon, convincing myself that it will protect me from the ensuing body cooking.

I know I don't have nearly as much QT with UV rays as the bronzed babes of schools in warm climates. Before I started going to tanning salons, I always thought sun tanning was pretty dangerous for long amounts of time, and artificial tanning, or "fake-'n'-bake," was somehow a little tacky and not worth the money or risks. What is it that has kept me and so many others coming back then?

In the August 2005 edition of "Science Daily," a study tested criteria from alcohol addiction and substance-related disorders to investigate whether chronic tanners met similar criteria. A large proportion of those questioned fit the criteria, suggesting that something about tanning gets people hooked in a serious way. A study in the July 2004 edition of "Science Daily" found that the UV light from the sun and from tanning salon bulbs had a calming effect on tanners. The authors suggested that something in the UV light could result in an endorphin rush that induces a state of euphoria — a euphoria strong enough that it would keep tanners coming back for more even if their face would look like their 91-year-old Nana's by their 36th birthday.

I know I'm not alone at Princeton in my secret love for tanning salons. Sure it's nice to look tan even when it's cloudy and cold, but it's not like we have to look good in skirts or that snazzy bright-colored polo for that much of the year. Maybe the relatively high-stress, Ivy League environment at our school makes anyone who's willing to try tanning that much more vulnerable to the addictive nature of the relaxing effects. Maybe instead of remembering how good we looked after that last tan (which, let's be serious, is never really fantastically natural), our brain remembers how good that endorphin rush felt.

I and others should take the recent tanning findings into account and try to limit or eliminate our tanning excursions. If you're doing something that means you can go to sleep a golden girl one night and wake up looking like a Golden Girl a la Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia, it's probably not a good thing. Laura Berner is a psychology major from Rye, New York. She can be reached at lberner@princeton.edu.