No TAN is SAFE.

 I have to ask...."imported" sunscreen? Can you please explain?? You piqued my curiosity! 

 Products containing the ingredient Mexoryl.  Some limited products are available now in the US but there is a wider variety with higher SPFs from Europe.  I usually get these products from online Canadian stores.

Geez! Warn a person next time!!

That picture gave me the heebie-jeebies.

edited to add...I never go out without sunscreen. I don't want leathery skin. yuck.

My mother was a "bathing beauty" back in the late 30's and early 40's.  She developed invasive melanoma around age 45.  It started on her top lip, she'd go to Boston to have it removed.  It was reappear a couple of years later, then other spots popped up.  She did die of cancer, but the doctor's couldn't find the primary site, I have always thought it was the melanoma.  I've had a couple of burns, but mostly use the kids lotion of about 50.  One year I got a burn at a football game at the end of September.

Pat

My mom is a melanoma survivor. She had one when she was in her 30s, and, looking back, it's a wonder she didn't die from it. But did she give up the sun? No way.

She's 74 now, and has had numerous skin cancers removed---some of them just keep coming back. She does wear a big hat to shade her face, but no sunscreen. She's very fair---she never tans, just turns red.

I *can* tan, but I try to stay out of the sun---but I'm not very good about using sunscreen when I work in the garden. I suspect I'll regret that some day soon.

I stay out of the sun as much as I can...I burned really badly one year about the time I was 12/13 and hated it. My sister loves the sun, uses tanning beds. She also has had Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans which is a deep cell skin cancer. They got it early but she has to be very careful now. My daddy has had the basel cell carcinoma from all his years of working outside shirtless in the yard.

But I don't go outside much without being covered up or wearing sunscreen. And still I have damage to my skin. Nothing like their's but damage.

In all honesty, I called last week to check on tanning salon prices in my area.  Ugh, another WL conundrum.  I am going to reconsider, now.  After all I had the surgery to extend my life.  With my luck I'd start tanning and find out I had melanoma next....

I've always been a super-pale girl, and just accepted the SPF 50 long ago.  However, I was the minority even when I went to school!  It kind of freaks me out how often some of my friends are Facebook-posting that it's time to go tanning.  And I have to say that my mother, who is responsible for my paleness, has the most beautiful skin and looks decades younger than her friends, thanks to sunscreen and hats!

That being said, I have a weird freckle that I am watching.

The irony is that doctors say we should spend some time in the sun without sunscreen to increase our vitamin D.

My mom actually had low vitamin D on her last check-up so she is less careful. but a few minutes a day is all you really need!