Tanning Mom. You have all probably heard it. Patricia Krentcil, also known as “Tanning Mom”, was accused of taking her 5 year old daughter to a tanning salon after the fair-skinned and red-haired child complained to her school nurse about having a burn. Now this mother has gone from a little law suit to making a huge impression on society.

                All the charges were dropped when Krentcil explained that the burn was from the child playing outside, not from a tanning bed. But from the look of the mother’s skin, how can you not assume that the child was in the bed? When your mother’s skin is as dark brown and rough as my leather couch, she has a problem.

                Now, one of the recent stereotypes about New Jersey, thanks to MTV’s reality show “Jersey Shore”, is said that Jersey people are tan. *Insert shrug of shoulders* But c’mon, even Snooki had something to say about this bronzed mother. According to www.nypost.com, “You are not supposed to take kids there. Everyone knows you’re not supposed to take kids there,” the iconic bronzed partier said.  

                But wait! There’s more. Now you can order your very own Tanning Mom…action figure. The company Hero Builders has decided to create their very own version of Krentcil, doll style. The $29.95 dollar action figure has it all, including an orange face and yellow hair. (http://www.herobuilders.com/)  On the site are the words, “Get the all new tanorexic action figure, the tanorexic doll, a perfect gift for all your tanned BFF’S”.

                But we know that you can’t get enough of Krentcil, which means that you’re in luck because it’s rumored that she’s communicating with companies about having her own *sigh*…reality show. The 44 year old also said that she would love to do Playboy.

 I’m sorry, uh, what?

Don’t worry, Playboy has that said that it would, “definitely never happen.” This woman has tanned so much that she’s been banned from 63 salons in her tri-state area. Her go-to salon has even put her picture up so customers can recognize her. So, why would she need a reality show? She doesn’t.  

While reading about her I’ve read names like “102-year-old bacon”, “crypt keeper”, “beef jerkey”, and my personal favorite, “melanomom.”

But there is a lesson to this story though everyone: tanning can be dangerous. I’m not going to just come out and say, “Don’t tan.” Because first of all, that would make me a hypocrite, (I sometimes visit the tanning beds myself but just looking at this women gives me melanoma), and second of all, I can’t control you. I’m just a teenager that’s writing an article.

I do feel though as if I have an obligation to tell you what happens to you when you lay in that UV ray lighted bed. 

According to ehow.com, that the most important fact to know is you have automatically increased your chances of getting skin cancer and skin cancer can be deadly. Skin that’s often exposed to UV rays begins aging faster; you can have sun spots and unflattering changes of the texture of your skin, (Exhibit A: Krentcil’s face). Eye problems have also been reported from tanning beds including corneal burns, cataracts and retinal damage.

Teen Vogue posted an article about the dangers of tanning and there was story of a girl, Jaime, who died after contracting melanoma from tanning beds. The mother said, “Jaime wanted a ‘killer tan’, and that’s exactly what she got.”

To read the whole article go to: http://www.teenvogue.com/beauty/blogs/beauty/2010/05/tanning-bed-dangers.html.

Next time you lay down in a bed, just think about all the dangers that could be ahead of you in the future and ask yourself, “Is this really worth a ‘killer tan’”?