Tanmaxxing trend leaving gen Z cooked

Picture it: a tanning salon, 2009.

An endless loop of Pitbull’s I Know You Want Me — uno dos tres quatro — is thumping while I, marinating in a lotion with a scent best described as Coconuts N’ Chemicals, am getting a base tan.

I am going to Lollapalooza in Chicago again and do not want to burn the way I did the year before. My fellow millennials will know the true torture that is a gladiator-sandal sunburn at a summer music festival that requires hours of standing. And don’t even get me started on the tan lines after. Like a trussed turkey.

That very same summer, international cancer experts moved tanning beds into the highest risk category for cancer, alongside tobacco smoke, the hepatitis B virus and, memorably, mustard gas. After two or three sessions, I quit going to the tanning salon and never returned.

Fast forward to 2026, and the youth are tanmaxxing. (I swear, every time I log onto the internet I am greeted by some fresh hell.)

Tanmaxxing, like the similarly foolish looksmaxxing, involves endangering yourself to achieve a beauty standard, this time the perfect tan. Tanmaxxers purposely head outdoors when the UV index is at its highest, eschewing sunscreen because of “toxins,” to get as dark as possible.

Some are going as far as sunning their perineums, which, I don’t know guys, I think that area of the body is called “where the sun don’t shine” for a reason.

Tanning isn’t new and, like every beauty norm, has seasons where it’s in and seasons where it’s out. But unlike their bronzed forebears, gen-Z tanfluencers know the risks of sun exposure. They grew up hearing about the risks of sun exposure. A lot of them simply do not care about the risks of sun exposure.

Or they believe those risks have been overstated. With access to more information comes access to more misinformation, and tanmaxxing is rife with it. Some believe, for example, that sunscreen is more harmful for you than the sun, for example. It’s not. Or that tanning is safe so long as you don’t burn. It’s not.

Data from the Canadian Dermatology Association also show a deep disconnect between awareness and behaviour among gen-Z Canadians. While 79 per cent are worried about skin cancer, 39 per cent intentionally tan; 81 per cent follow a skin-care routine, but only 22 per cent wear sunscreen year round.

Yes, members of the same generation who are hauling around water bottles the size of Culligan refills to stay hydrated and dropping hundreds of dollars on retinoids and serums are also purposely frying their skin. It’s baffling.

Part of this is youthful folly. It’s very hard to think long term when you’re young and think you’re invincible. The consequences are too far downstream. Though, when it comes to skin cancer, they are not as downstream as people might believe; perhaps not surprisingly, skin cancer is on the rise among young people, despite being a preventable cancer.

And tanning offers instant gratification. You can easily track its progress via tan lines. It’s low-effort. The desired outcome is almost guaranteed. It doesn’t require doing reps in a gym or submitting to needles and scalpels. You lie out, you look “slimmer,” “fitter” and “healthier” — all adjectives I’ve seen people use about how having a tan makes them feel — and boom, done.

But this is also the logical extension of what happens when people are increasingly getting wellness and health advice online, turning to influencers and Reddit threads and TikTok videos instead of experts.

The “sunscreen causes cancer” misinfo that runs rampant, for example, often cites an old U.K. study that shows people with higher sunscreen use also had an increased risk of skin cancer, omitting crucial context that some sunscreen users feel a false sense of security and therefore don’t reapply, don’t use it properly in the first place, or spend more time outside without additional protections.

When I had a brief flirtation with tanning back in 2009, I didn’t have feeds with influencers telling me sunscreen is bad. The World Health Organization telling me tanning beds were a carcinogen was enough for me to stop using them. But I was also 24, and felt like I always would be.

Now, at 41, I know better. So, I’ll be over here protectionmaxxing.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca