Dangerous fashion
Tattoos “with sunburns” alarming dermatologists
New trend, young people are exposed to the sun to create temporary patterns on their skin. “Tattoos” that can cause cancers.
Young people create patterns on their skin by selective exposure to solar rays.
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Health professionals sound the alarm in the face of a dangerous fashion that spreads among young people: tattoos with sunburns. This practice of creating patterns on the skin by selective exposure to the sun. A “fashion” criticized by experts interviewed in the program “Forum” of the RTS.
Each sunburn counts
The deliberate exposure to ultraviolet rays to obtain these temporary reasons particularly worries dermatologists. Olivier Gaide, chief doctor at Chunhighlights the paradox of this trend: while awareness of the dangers of the sun progresses in the general population, a contradictory fashion specifically emerges in young people, a population most vulnerable to the harmful effects of UV.
The specialist dismantles the myth of “sun capital” that some might believe intact in their youth. “Each exhibition and each sunburn will potentially have an effect on the development of skin cancer,” he explains, highlighting the cumulative effect of exhibitions, even spaced. This practice therefore constitutes a risky behavior, the consequences of which will be manifested years later.
Socially encouraged practice, although dangerous
Anthropologist David Le Breton analyzes this practice as a symptomatic of deeper social transformations. “We become an artist of his own body by deciding tanning marks,” he observes. This aesthetic appropriation of the skin is part of a movement of hyperindividualization where the body becomes a support of personal expression, distinct from collective standards.
The paradox remains: despite repeated prevention campaigns, tanning retains a positive image in our company, associated with leisure and apparent health. This contradiction between medical knowledge and social practices makes prevention particularly complex, especially since young people are generally not very sensitive to the arguments concerning their future health.
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