Gen-Z and the Terrifying Rise of Extreme Tanning

Hannah Clark got her first spray tan for her school prom and has never looked back. “I’m not proud of it, but I have used sunbeds,” says the 29-year-old graphic designer from Plymouth. Her goal is “that glow you get when coming back from holiday. You know, when you walk around and people say: ‘Oh, you look really healthy.’ It’s that feeling I’m chasing.”

Clark is far from alone. On TikTok and Instagram, posts with the hashtag “sunbed” number more than 500,000. Last year,…