A 22-year-old woman who ‘can’t live without’ sunbeds and illegal tanning injections often get mistaken for a black girl.
Hannah Tittensor, from Belfast, appeared on Barcroft TV’s Hooked on the Look Series and said:
“Other girls say they can’t live without having their nails done and I can’t live without having a tan.”
“Pure and simple, it makes me happy.”
“When I was younger I always wore fake tan and I hated it because it always washes off and goes patchy and I hate the smell,”
“It makes my complexion a lot nicer, like glowing. Your skin looks a lot better. That’s what I like about it.”
“All girls that I see on Instagram and all girls that I know get a spray tans so why not do sunbeds instead of wearing make-up on your body?”
Hannah told it was her boyfriend, Ben who introduced her to sunbeds and it was her brother who introduced her and her boyfriend to illegal tanning injections.
Hannah, who labeled the drug harmless, said: “The only side effect is the first few days of taking it you feel sick and it sorta suppresses your appetite.”
“Some people would say that that’s a good thing.”
While her boyfriend Ben said: “I don’t know much about the health risks of the [tan injection] but I haven’t seen any really bad things happen so far.”
“No one in my family has cancer. So to me, I see cancer as genetic so I don’t really worry about myself but sometimes I would worry about Han because she does more minutes on the sunbed than me.”
Hannah, who often gets mistaken for a black girl, said: “People attack me online. If you type ‘blackface’ on Instagram or even on Google, my name will come up.”
“People say I was trying to be a black woman and try and switch races and stuff just because I’m tanning.”
“I don’t care. These people don’t actually know me.”
“It’s become more of like an obsession, a need to be tanned more than to actually feel better when I’m actually tanned.”
“Maybe it’s just because I’m used to looking at myself so I don’t understand if it’s too much. I just see myself as ‘this is me now’.”
“Cancer does run in my family. I’d probably be more prone to getting skin cancer. I think it’s obviously just a matter of getting moles checked.”