It’s burned into memory like it was yesterday: walking out of a tanning booth in 2006, peeling off the little Playboy bunny sticker to see how golden the session got you. It was a trend that elder millennials followed blindly, and most of us eventually came around on why it was a terrible idea. Gen Z, it seems, is less convinced. Armed with UV index trackers and TikTok tanning tutorials, they’re picking up right where we left off.

The American Academy of Dermatology surveyed Americans on sun safety earlier this year, and the results weren’t great. One-third got sunburned in 2025, with Gen Z experiencing the worst burns. Also, two-thirds of all respondents rated their own sun safety knowledge as good or excellent despite nearly half scoring a C or lower on the AAD’s actual quiz. Among Gen Z, one-third got a D or F. Meanwhile, TikTok videos breaking down the best UV index ranges for tanning are pulling hundreds of thousands of likes.

TikTok Is Turning the UV Index Into a Tanning Guide, and Doctors Say That’s Backward

The UV index runs from 0 to 11 and measures how strong the sun’s ultraviolet radiation is at any given moment. Higher number, stronger rays, more damage. Somehow, a growing number of young people have read that and decided a high number means better tanning conditions.

“They’ve got it completely backward,” says Dr. Susan C. Taylor, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and former president of the AAD. “When UV is high, it means there are many UV rays getting through, so you need to double your skin protection efforts.” She also notes that a low UV index isn’t a free pass. “I’ve seen some of the worst burns from cloudy days,” she says.

Any tan, burn or not, is the skin signaling distress. “UV rays can harm your cells’ DNA, and your skin’s defense is to produce melanin,” says Dr. Ellen Marmur, a New York City dermatologist. “Any time we see a tan, that’s your skin telling you it’s been hurt.” One in five Americans will develop skin cancer. Five sunburns more than doubles the risk of melanoma.

The consequences compound over time in the form of wrinkles, brown spots, broken capillaries, and melasma—all expensive and tedious to treat later. “Every time you put on sun protection, you’re saving money on expensive lasers and injectables in the future,” says Dr. Marmur.

Dermatologists aren’t asking anyone to stay inside. Self-tanners exist. Bronzers exist. And a tanning bed at 22 is just a very expensive dermatology bill at 42.