A trend that suddenly emerged in 2015 is sunscreen tattoos. Young people leave patterns ‘burned’ into their skin in the sun, simply by making a pattern of sunscreen on the skin so that the underlying skin is not exposed to the sun, but the rest is. What remains is a contrasting color difference. Fun or dangerous?
Sunburn tattoos
- How is a sunscreen tattoo made?
- #sunburnart on social media
- Is a sunscreen tattoo dangerous?
- Sunburn tattoo under the tanning bed
How is a sunscreen tattoo made?
It happens to everyone sometimes: you’ve been in the sun for a little too long without applying sunscreen and part of a piece of clothing, your watch, sunglasses or the cord of your headphones has left a pattern on your skin. Not very charming and you’ll pay more attention next time. These kinds of accidents now seem to have inspired young people to the newly emerged trend of sunscreen tattoos.
Making a sunscreen tattoo is not difficult. Sunscreen applies a thick layer to the skin in a specific pattern. A stencil is used for complicated patterns. If you then lie in the sun, the skin will burn completely, except where the sunscreen has been applied. Within a short time, after washing off the cream, a contrasting color difference will be noticeable: first white and red due to the burned skin and after the skin has healed, white and brown. What remains is also called a sunburn tattoo.
#sunburnart on social media
Sunburn tattoos have become a real trend in 2015. Under the hashtag #sunburnart, young people share photos of their creations en masse on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Popular patterns include suns, hearts, flowers and logos of Batman and Superman. In some cases, no sunscreen is used, but people simply leave an object on their stomach or back while sunbathing so that the underlying skin is not exposed to the sun, but the rest is. Some people even go so far as to transform their entire body into a work of art in this way.
Is a sunscreen tattoo dangerous?
According to dermatologists, the sunscreen tattoo trend is a very dangerous one because young people are knowingly burning themselves. This is not just a case of ‘who wants to be beautiful must suffer pain’ and after you get rid of the burning pain you can enjoy the creation. Burning the skin is a dangerous process and increases the risk of cancer.
The most common form of cancer resulting from excessive sun exposure is melanoma . UV radiation from sunlight can cause malignant cell proliferation. Anyone who is frequently sunburned has a greatly increased risk of developing melanoma. This doesn’t mean that burning once won’t do any harm. If you are extra sensitive to this, one burn can be too much. The condition is often only discovered when it is too late and many thousands of people die every year as a result of this form of cancer.
Sunburn tattoo under the tanning bed
It is often thought that sunburn is less serious than sunburn. However, this is a myth. The radiation emitted by the tanning bed is also harmful to the skin. Creating a sunscreen tattoo under a tanning bed is therefore just as dangerous as in your backyard or on the beach and also increases the risk of cancer.
