Important message from “tanning mom”: My critics are jealous, fat, and ugly

The good news? Her skin here looks … not quite “normal,” but normal-ish. It’s more of a George Hamilton orange than deep brown leather. The bad news? Last night’s dumb post was the most heavily trafficked on the site today, by a fairly wide margin. Good lord, people. The campaign’s not that boring. (No, it is. I know.)

Serious question: How did her face turn that leathery brown color? When I first saw it, I thought maybe she had some sort of bronzer on but (a) I don’t think bronzer typically is that dark and (b) if she did, she would have wiped it off before doing the interview, right? Was that … her actual skin after she does a session in the tanning booth? C’mon. It can’t possibly turn that astoundingly dark and then revert to a semi-normal color in just a day or two, can it?


Can it?

Krentcil does admit that she enjoys tanning — perhaps a bit too much — but all those hours in UV light have likely damaged the collagen in Krentcil’s skin, causing her leathery, brown visage.

“That’s a result of chronic exposure, which causes darkening of the skin,” says Dr. Shannon Campbell, clinical assistant professor of general dermatology and cutaneous oncology at The Ohio State University James Cancer Center.

While many people just desire a bronze color, a tan is actually the body’s way of protecting itself. “Why is she so dark? Tanning is a protective mechanism that the body has and it is sign of skin damage if the body tans. That explains why her skin is so dark,” says Campbell.

Any dermatologists out there in the audience? What exactly were we looking at last night?