"Skanky Bitches."

I have been gossiped about a lot in my 24 years. No surprise there since I am from a small peninsula and I used to date a lot of dudes who were mentioned in the gossip grapevine frequently. What I am trying to say is that I have heard a lot of amusing stories and assumptions about myself, some true, some totally so far fetched that they still cause me to chuckle. However,  I heard one today that I just have to share with you.

My friend travels for a living and he was at a client's house this afternoon when he noticed a tanning bed. He casually mentions how unsafe tanning beds are for us. The client responded, and I quote, a tanning bed is "safer than natural sunlight."

(Ha. I would bet she heard that from her local tanning salon.)

Anywho, my friend immediately started telling this client about me and how I have stage III melanoma. Instead of offering sympathy or concern, this woman says, "Oh. She was probably one of those skanky bitches who abused it by going all the time."

That's a pretty big assumption, lady. 

I have never denied my tanning bed use. I wanted to be pretty, and I associated being pretty as being tan. However, I have always said I only went to a tanning bed before major events like prom, graduations, and vacations. I never went "all the time." I was never the girl with the constant bronzed skin. In fact, I was quite the opposite. Ha. Now that I am thinking about it, I remember sitting at a bar, and a dude said to me, "Do you ever go out in the sun?" Yeah, I was typically the ghost girl.

Yet, I am the girl--the first out of all of my tanning bed obsessed friends--who received the advanced melanoma diagnosis at only 23.

Today I read this article titled, "I wish I wouldn't have cared so much about being tan." The article focuses on pending laws in Missouri and Illinois that would restrict tanning for teens. In Missouri, the law will force parents to sign the necessary forms prior to their children being allowed to tan. In Illinois, the law would prevent teens from tanning at all.


Dr. Lynn Cornelius, chief of dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine, said in the article that she has recently diagnosed a lot of women in their 20s with melanoma. The article says that when Cornelius questions the women about their tanning habits, "the number using tanning beds is 80 (percent) to 90 percent of them," she said. "It's just alarming."

Don't let this:

Turn you into this:

Oh, and for the record ma'am, I may be a bitch, but I certainly am not a skanky bitch. ;-)