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When Kim Kardashian gave her TikTok followers a peek into the SKKN offices, we saw the expected: a wall covered in magazine covers on which she's appeared; a room designed by Rick Owens; a mannequin made from her custom measurements standing guard in the glam room; a 3D model of her own brain on her desk. Totally normal things to exist in one's office. (Allure has been inside this office, and we can attest that it's “like being inside the world’s most enormous and expensive cinder block.”)
But one thing we certainly did not expect to see was a tanning bed, which Kardashian gleefully shows off 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? Kardashian 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 tanning 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 tanning bed elephant in the room was all fans could focus on, the Allure team 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 tanning 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 Organization'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; twenty states have banned people younger than 18 from indoor tanning, and Australia, Brazil, and Iran have banned indoor tanning entirely.
The stats about tanning and cancer are terrifying. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, “more than 419,000 cases of skin cancer in the U.S. each year are linked to indoor tanning, including about 245,000 basal cell carcinomas, 168,000 squamous cell carcinomas, and 6,200 melanomas.” They also share that more people develop skin cancer from tanning beds than get lung cancer from smoking and that “any history of indoor tanning increases the risk of developing basal cell carcinoma before age 40 by 69 percent.” Tanning also causes an increased risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, as noted by the American Academy of Dermatology Association.
Like me, you might have seen the tanning bed and thought, “Well, Kardashian has psoriasis, so maybe that's why she has a tanning 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, told Allure in 2021. “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 tanning bed use.” Kardashian also shares a glimpse at the red UV light bed sitting right next to her tanning bed, so, hey, she got one part of the equation right.
For a while, tanning 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. The Skin Cancer Foundation notes that from 2009 to 2015, “indoor tanning among U.S. high school students decreased by 53 percent,” which is a pretty big drop. If you've used tanning beds post-oughts, chances are you've done so in secret to avoid the very lecture I'm giving you right now.
However, people are still really confused about tanning as a whole, as evidenced by a survey done by the American Academy of Dermatology in 2022. It found that 63 percent of the survey's 1,000 participants got a tan in 2021 with 33 percent reporting a sunburn. The survey also noted that 22 percent of participants still believe the myth that getting a “base tan” helps prevent sunburns.
Someone as high-profile and influential as Kardashian sharing that they use a tanning bed is alarming, to say the least. If followers see that Kardashian, who has access to the best doctors and estheticians 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,” David Herschthal, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Boca Raton, Florida, previously told Allure.
The Kardashian family also has first-hand experience with skin cancer, making this tanning 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 zit 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 Kardashian boasting about her tanning equipment while simultaneously selling a $90 vitamin C serum that claims to "help to even skin tone and slow down the appearance of aging." (Both indoor and outdoor tanning can contribute to visible skin aging, 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 aging, but it can't prevent cancer.
Of course, Kardashian 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 tanning bed and thus increasing her engagement. At the end of the day, Kardashian 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.
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