Why do people sun tan?

[Orlong]

Someone's making broad statements.

Give one reason other than vanity to get a tan

[Gothicshark]

Give one reason other than vanity to get a tan

Here's a good one, I have psoriasis my doctor wants me to get a tan. Getting a tan reduces to severity of psoriasis.

[Eviscero]

Give one reason other than vanity to get a tan

Vitamin D... Obviously the most important vitamin.

[zenyatta]

There are people who tan, and there are people like me who have vitamin D deficiencies.

[Asics]

Society has deemed a tanned appearance a healthy, youthful one. I imagine this is believed because the opposite of tan is pale, and pale is sickly, sickly is unhealthy.

Youthful is kind of an opinion though.

[Ettan]

It's like drinking at someone's house before you go to a bar, just to get "into the mood." Preposterous.

Stupid not to do that for a wide number of reasons.
We usually start 6-7h before we go out, have a BBQ/boating trip or something and just socialize while we drink moderately.
Why is that? Well when we hit the town and start going from pub to pub/nightclub to nightclub people start to drift away from eachother.
It just always happens for various reasons anything from ppl hooking up to getting arrested/shitfaced. So we get together and socialize beforehand to sort of remedy that.
2# The cost, taxes in Nor on both beer and tobacco are pretty fucked up.
3# The night doesn't really spring to life before 9ish.
4# And the clubs/pubs close early at 3 -3 30ish.
So naturally both pre parties and after parties are an essential part to nightlife.

[Azutael]

I'm pale as death itself, I can hide in the snow no problem, blind people by going in the sun. I'm sure some people think i'm dead at times!
Over exaggerating a tiny bit, but still. I'm pale and it doesn't bother me at all.

Vitamin D... Obviously the most important vitamin.

Eat oily fish, or take supplements. Like cod liver oil. Problem solved. People up north have done so for a veeeeery long time.

[Krawu]

People sun tan for the same reason they avioded going out into the sun a couple hundred years ago: It's supposed to make you seem kinda wealthy. Back in the day, if you were pale it meant you didn't have to work outside like a peasant. Today a natural tan means you have a lot of time on your hands to lay around doing nothing, and possibly spend a lot of it in sunny places which may be more or less expensive.

[Kavoo]

I dont get it either, and Im Brazilian and live by the beach.

[Zonas]

People sun tan for the same reason they avioded going out into the sun a couple hundred years ago: It's supposed to make you seem kinda wealthy. Back in the day, if you were pale it meant you didn't have to work outside like a peasant. Today a natural tan means you have a lot of time on your hands to lay around doing nothing, and possibly spend a lot of it in sunny places which may be more or less expensive.

It was actually the opposite of that before then too. Before the industrial age, a tan meant you were poor because you always worked outside and being pale meant you were wealthy. Much like how rich people back then wore white face makeup and the like. Then, when people started working in factories, they had less time to be outside. So the rich spent their time in the sun getting tans, while the working man spent it indoors.

Really, it can say as much now adays too. With a tan meaning you have more free time or have more physical work. Much like how a demanding desk job can make someone overweight and the like.

[dashflash890]

Meh tans are for pale pasty people. My skin looks like I have a perfect tan but I don't even try to do it on purpose. Maybe its because I live in Texas so hot here.

[Dazzy]

People tan for the same reason people do anything that doesn't matter. They like it.

Why do you drink? It's a lot more damaging to your body than tanning.
Also, your wording sounds like you are implying cold sores come from being outside...

[xylophone]

Sure is Northern Europe in here... I don't actively tan, but here in SoCal it just happens.

[The Riddler]

To look awesome when they're young and like leather glove when they're older.

[Crissi]

Because people don't think skin cancer will ever happen to them.

[Deleted]

It's purely cultural. White people in this age thinks a tan makes you exotic, hence beautiful.
Here in China, a tan is considered something of lower-class people, hence unattractive, and girls walk with umbrellas in summer to avoid getting tanned.

[mizeri]

I am brown skin so I don't really get it either, I try to avoid the sun as much as possible but my left arm always gets a little bit more tanned then the right cause I drive with it out the window lol.

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It's purely cultural. White people in this age thinks a tan makes you exotic, hence beautiful.
Here in China, a tan is considered something of lower-class people, hence unattractive, and girls walk with umbrellas in summer to avoid getting tanned.

pretty much this, I lived in korea for few years and the women gets pretty covered up during the summer months, they wanna be pasty white.

[jace5869]

My wife, who is a filipina, uses and umbrella during the day, uses the gluta-thione soap for whitening the skin and likes to avoid the sun as much as possible. They love the whiter color here in the Philippines. Being a white guy here is quite fun. I keep telling her she isn't dark and when she gets to the US people will be jealous of her. I love her natural color.

[Soki]

Because they don't realize that the paler you are, the better you look.

[Crissi]

...and as I was about to post something on the awesomeness of being pale and preserving my youth over someone that tans every day, I get a freaking tanning salon ad.