When Kim Kardashian gave her TikTok followers a peek into the SKKN offices, one thing we certainly did not expect to see were sun beds. Kim gleefully shows off hers at one point in the video, climbing into it wearing a robe and protective eyewear. “I'm Kim Kardashian, of course I have a tanning bed.”
Wait, what? Kim is known for her love of skin care; she launched the whole SKKN brand around it and is always showing off facial devices and skin procedures in her eternal quest to look young. So why does she have — and seemingly use — a sun bed in her office? Though the whole “3D model of my brain casually sitting on my desk” moment was certainly notable, it seemed like the sun bed elephant in the room was all fans could focus on, us included. “Does this mean we can start tanning again?” commented one TikTok user. “Are tanning beds safe again???? I'm seeing them everywhere," wrote another.
Uh, no.
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We probably don't need to remind you that sun beds are bad, and there's a laundry list of reasons as to why. As noted by the Skin Cancer Foundation, UV radiation is a “proven human carcinogen,” and they're classified in the same cancer-causing group as cigarettes and plutonium by the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer. The FDA reclassified UV tanning from a low risk to a moderate-to-high risk of cancer in 2014, so we've known about the dangers of basking in a bed of fake sunshine for a long time now; here in the UK, it's illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to use a sun bed, and Australia, Brazil, and Iran have banned indoor tanning entirely.
The stats about tanning and cancer are terrifying. According to the Cancer Research UK “people who start using sun beds before the age of 35 have an 87% increased risk of malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.” The charity also found that “people who had ever used a sun bed were 20% more likely to subsequently develop melanoma, compared to people who had never used one.” The British Medical Journal (BMJ) estimated that sunbeds are responsible for 5.4% of malignant melanoma in 18 European countries that they studied. And in the UK, they estimated that sunbeds cause around 440 malignant melanomas each year, which is more than one case a day and result in just under 100 deaths. While UV exposure remains the most prevalent and deadly cause of melanoma, Cancer Research UK points out that those caused by sunbeds are “entirely preventable.”
Like me, you might have seen the sun bed and thought, “Well, Kim has psoriasis, so maybe that's why she has a sun bed.” She's been very open about her struggles with the condition, but contrary to popular belief, UV exposure can be more harmful than helpful in the treatment of psoriasis. “A blistering sunburn can trigger a whole-body psoriasis flare, as sunburn can be thought of as systemic injury to the skin,” board-certified dermatologist Shasa Hu, MD, previously explained. “This is why, although natural sunlight at a very low dose and medical UV therapy are known treatment for psoriasis, sunburn is a big no-no for psoriasis patients. The same goes for sun bed use.” Kim also shares a glimpse at the red UV light bed sitting right next to her sun bed, so, hey, she got one part of the equation right.
For a while, sun beds were basically persona non grata in the beauty world, especially after the end of the tanning-obsessed 2000s and due to advancements in sunless tanning products such as spray tans and at-home creams. If you've used sub beds post-noughties, chances are you've done so in secret to avoid the very lecture I'm giving you right now.
Someone as high-profile and influential as Kim sharing that they use a sun bed is alarming, to say the least. If followers see that Kim, who has access to the best doctors and aestheticians in the world, is doing it, it must be fine, right? Nope! “There’s no such thing as a safe tanning bed, and anything to the contrary is absolutely false,” says David Herschthal, MD, a board-certified dermatologist.
The Kardashian family also has first-hand experience with skin cancer, making this sun bed all the more jarring. In 2022, Kim's younger sister Khloé Kardashian had a lingering bump on her face that she first thought was a spot but, after having it biopsied, learned it was melanoma. She had an “immediate operation" to remove it completely. (She also had melanoma on her back at age 19.)
Then there's the irony of Kim boasting about her tanning equipment while simultaneously selling an £88 vitamin C serum that claims to "help to even skin tone and slow down the appearance of ageing." (Both indoor and outdoor tanning can contribute to visible skin ageing, including fine lines and dark spots.) She may use that red light bed of hers, which is said to help treat skin conditions like acne and burns plus reduce signs of ageing, but it can't prevent cancer.
Of course, Kim is a savvy marketer who knows how to get people talking about herself and her products, for better or worse. The video is already being “stitched” en masse on TikTok and Instagram Reels, with creators and dermatologists alike calling out the sun bed and thus increasing her engagement. At the end of the day, Kim lives in a very different world than the rest of us, and just because a celebrity is doing something doesn't mean you should be, too. Sunless tanning exists for a reason, and nothing is worth the risk of skin cancer.
This article was originally published on Allure.
