One only need explore the Instagram hashtag called #SunburnArt to check out the new and dangerous trend up close and personal. Although admittedly the so-called “sunburn art” can appear intricate and creative, anything that involves burning the skin with the sun will inevitably bring warnings of skin cancer danger, as reported by Allure .
The publication points to sunburn art taking the place of flash tattoos, and notes that the Skin Cancer Foundation warned against sunburn art .
Still, photos of women on Instagram with sunburned renderings of sunsets on their backs exist. The painful practice is enacted by a variety of means — with some folks placing sunscreen in a pattern on their skin where they don’t want to get burned. Others wear special clothing with patterns cut out to let the sun shine and burn through.
The sunburn needed to create the contrast of sunburn art is not only painful, but it increases their risk for developing skin cancer from melanoma, which is the worst form of skin cancer. After a person has endured five or greater instances of sunburns, their risk for skin cancer increases.
Some photos tagged with the # SunburnArt hashtag on Instagram truly show renderings of art, like a version of the Mona Lisa painting. Others look positively painful with a totally red and burned skin surrounding the Batman logo.
Collage photos of the sunburn art on Instagram prove most of the posts are in Spanish, perhaps deriving from lands where the sun is closer to the equator and the sun index a lot greater than some regions of the Unites States.
However, dermatologists warn that sunburns are really bad, and even though the area of skin that was covered while creating the sunburn art wasn’t likely damaged — the sunburned part definitely suffered injury due to the sunburn. Some sunburn art obviously isn’t intentional, however, like the sunburn art that can happen when a person takes off their sandals after walking around on a sunny day.
As reported by the Inquisitr , another troubling hashtag beyond the sunburn art label on Instagram involves those tagging their photos with the “ Secret Society 123 ” label and other hashtags that promote anorexic types of eating. Thankfully, most of the people using the #SunburnArt hashtag on Instagram are warning others about the dangers of the practice and are encouraging them not to follow the trend. Real life skin cancer survivors have weighed in with their experiences.
[Image via Instagram]
