Kim Kardashian makes shock revelation that she is still using a tanning bed
Is it 2024 or 2004?
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Kim Kardashian is still using a solarium to achieve her golden glow, but when we know how catastrophic skin cancer can be, and the causal relationship between cancer and tanning beds – why are we giving her a free pass? News flash: we shouldn't.
There’s a meme making the rounds online that says 2024 is just 2004 repeating itself.
Mean Girls has just hit the cinema, Usher’s making a comeback, the Olympics are months away, Wicked’s back on stage and, in the US, there’s an election on the horizon.
While all of the above is true, there’s one other similarity between the current state of pop culture and the scene 20 years ago, and that’s tanning culture – which, for some reason, is still being flogged by high-profile influencers online.
The latest culprit? None other than the queen of Instagram herself, Kim Kardashian.
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As part of the viral ‘of course’ trend on TikTok, people have been posting videos where they reveal things about themselves that just make sense.
Whether it’s New Yorkers speed walking through the streets, siblings walking into each other’s room for no reason, or Ms Christmas’s case, “I’m Mariah Carey, of course I’m reading my own book”, the trend has spread far and wide, with people in all corners of the internet taking part.
Earlier this week, Kim jumped on board too, and did her take on the trend inside the offices of her SKKN skincare brand.
But while revelations that she mounts all her magazine covers on the walls, has a mannequin with all her custom measurements in her “glam room”, and a 3D model of her own brain on her desk, one admission ruffled more than a few feathers.
“I’m Kim Kardashian, of course I have a tanning bed and a red light bed in my office,” she says.
Tanning beds, or solariums, are tanning units that use “ultraviolet (UV) radiation to tan the skin,” writes the Cancer Council.
Pigment, or melanin, production in the skin is stimulated by the UV, which then absorbs the light and darkens the skin, creating a tan.
You’ve probably seen them before, with one particularly poignant example involving Jennifer Coolidge’s character in A Cinderella Story climbing out of one, and they were very popular at the turn of the century, when tanning culture was at a high.
But science shows, “There is no such thing as a safe tan from a solarium,” says a face sheet from Better Health Victoria.
“UV radiation from solariums increases your risk of developing skin cancer…[emitting] UV levels up to 6 times stronger than the midday summer sun.
“They can also cause eye damage and immediate skin damage, such as sunburn, irritation, redness and swelling.”
After nearly a decade of campaigning by advocacy groups across Australia, including the Cancer Council, commercial solarium units were banned in all Australian states and territories except the Northern Territory (where there are no commercial tanning businesses) as of January 1st 2015.
However, “Private ownership and personal use of solariums remain legal (and unregulated) in all states and territories,” per the Cancer Council.
While solariums are no longer easily accessible on home soil, the same can’t be said for people overseas, with tanning beds still very popular in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly Canada and the US.
Part of the problem is that in other countries, where regulations may not be as robust as in Australia, solarium usage is often marketed as “harmless” and “good for your skin. However, it’s a stance that all medical bodies and pharmaceutical scientist and beauty content creator Hannah Collingwood English are adamant is far from the case.
“UV radiation is a complete carcinogen, meaning it can both mutate DNA (initiate) and encourage rapid growth (promote),” English wrote on Instagram earlier today.
“Sunbeds can emit 6x higher radiation than the midday sun…They also expose more of the body to UV than the sun would normally see.”
“People who use a solarium before age 35 have a 59 per cent higher risk of melanoma. Important to distinguish this is the risk of actual melanoma, not other skin cancers…There’s an additional risk of 1.8 per cent per session.”
On a micro level, Kim’s video has sparked concern for her health.
Khloe Kardashian, Kim’s younger sister, spoke out last year about the risk of skin cancer, after she had a precancerous melanoma removed from her cheek after it was deemed “dangerous and significant” by a doctor.
"I never imagined that this tiny spec would turn into skin cancer and I can't fathom what could have possibly happened had I not gone to the doctor to get it looked at," she wrote in an Instagram story, after waiting for more than a year to have it looked at.
"Paying attention to our skin and changes in our skin and our body, no matter how small, is so important,” Khloe continued, "There is no such thing as being too careful. You are you're [sic] responsibility baby! Take care of you."
Khloe also had a melanoma removed on her back when she was 19 – so there’s no doubt skin cancer runs in the Kardashian family, meaning Kim is already at an increased risk.
Add the effect of regular sunbed usage into the mix, and Kim is asking for trouble.
However, what’s more concerning is the knock-on effect use of solariums will have across the wider internet.
While a few commentators on Kim’s TikTok were appalled by her admission of using sunbeds, many more seemed more enthused, or confused.
“Are tanning beds safe again?????? I’m seeing them everywhere 😭😍,” one user commented, while another wrote “So can I go back into the tanning beds if Kim Kardashian does?”
The latter comment speaks volumes about why it’s so dangerous for people with large followings and profiles to advocate for tanning culture.
Whether they want to be or not, people like Kim Kardashian are role models to people all over the world. With one post, avid users will quite literally follow her lead, and head straight into a tanning bed, or invest in other measures to facilitate a tan – be it buying tanning oil, spending more time in the sun, or foregoing sunscreen.
It’s a problem that’s particularly poignant amongst the younger generation who, in Australia, have not been subject to the same level of mass anti-tanning marketing that Gen X or Millennials grew up with.
Kardashian's video perpetuates the message that beauty is more important than health – and that there are no lengths you shouldn't go to achieve it.
Solarium usage in Australia is a particularly sensitive topic, having been a huge part of the culture in the early 2000s, which contributed to many lives lost, years before they should’ve been.
“Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world,” Professor Anne Cust, chair of Cancer Council’s National Skin Cancer Committee, told Body+Soul in December last year. “Two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime, and it unfortunately claims the lives of over 2,000 Australians every year. ”
When drawing parallels between 2004 and 2024, it would be worth considering the story of Clare Oliver.
Oliver was diagnosed with melanoma at age 21, back in 2003, and played a large part in the advocacy campaign against sunbeds in Australia. She believed her skin cancer was caused by years of solarium use – despite being assured they were totally safe.
After a years-long fight against cancer, spent trying to spread the world against solariums far and wide, Oliver died on September 13th 2007.
Whether Kim Kardashian is hopping into sunbeds, your friends are encouraging you to use tanning oil, or otherwise, let’s not let Oliver’s death, and the many other Australians who died from skin cancer too young, be in vain.
As Oliver said in an interview with journalist Liz Hayes, just days before she died, "No tan is worth dying for."
Originally published as Kim Kardashian makes shock revelation that she is still using a tanning bed
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