A few years ago, Paul and I helped an friend of mine move. Chris and I are the same age, grew up in the same town, etc. After we went home that day, he asked "What happened to her skin? What's wrong with it?" And I said, "What are you talking about?" and he described what he meant, and I said "Oh, yeah. Chris used to get really tan in the summer, she was a lifeguard, too." That was the difference, I am pale, always have been, wore high-SPF sunblock (and I burn anyway, it's just not as bad) and didn't lie out in the sun. We were 33, and Paul noticed a huge difference in the health of our skin.

Tikeya's Mom, the "tanning" you are doing now is what could kill you later. It is not an instantaneous thing. Most of a person's sun expose comes in the first 18 years of their life. Yes, on of the high-school life guards in my hometown DID get skin cancer while he was still in high school, but for most people, it develops later in life from the expose we get earlier.

Someone said "skin cancer is easily cured if caught early" - ammend that. SOME common types of skin cancer are easily cured if caught early enough. Others are not, and are deadly. One of the people who was at our wedding was dead from skin cancer within the year.

You may think "tanning" is harmless, it's not. I do not hide from the sun, but neither am I stupid about it. I am sorry for you, and hope you will be luckier than most, but don't pass judgement so quickly on people who avoid tans, okay?