Along with buying a gown and booking a limo, some girls add tanning to their pre-prom routine.

    “I’m not trying to look like a ghost,” senior Jessica Mattson says. “I want to look good.”

   Mattson actually has a tanning bed in her house, but she says she uses it a lot less than people would think.

   “My family doesn’t really use the tanning bed often since we’ve become more aware of skin cancer,” Mattson says.

   With a strapless flowing prom dress adorned with a multicolored summer print, Mattson says that she will tan before prom because her dress will look best with a summer glow. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, this makes her one of the 2.3 million teenagers a year who use indoor tanning methods despite the risks of cancer.

   And the Mayo Clinic made headlines last month when it reported that

   Mayo Clinic Proceedings found the incidence of melanoma in young adults has soared, with a six-fold increase in the past 40 years. The rise is particularly noteworthy in young women ages 18 to 39, where the incidence of melanoma increased eightfold from 1970 to 2009, and fourfold in young men.” The Skin Cancer Foundation reports on its Web site that indoor ultraviolet (UV) tanners are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors.

   Registered nurse and teaching instructor at Catonsville Community College, Kellie Sinibaldi said that tanning for any reason is extremely dangerous.

   “I recently had a patient in the hospital who had melanoma on her face. She had to go to the operating room for skin grafts. She was only 38 years old and was disfigured because she had been ‘tanning’ for twenty years,” Sinibaldi said.

    For some seniors this is a casual routine and many are planning on tanning for prom only.

   Mandy Hall says that she is only doing it for this season. “I’m only doing it now but I won’t need to go when I start college in the fall because I’ll be outside more and I won’t need to go tanning then.”

   Hall says that she isn’t too worried about the tanning risks. “I don’t go over level one beds. I go four to five times a week on level one for 15-20 minutes at Aruba.”

   Many girls have become aware of the increased risk of cancer caused by tanning beds and are switching to non-harmful methods such as spray tans or self-tanning lotions.

   “I have never gone tanning before, but I have weird tan lines from my lacrosse uniform,” Sam Thibeault says, “that would look horrible with my dress, so I’m going to get a spray tan.”

   Amanda Chesser says that she has tried both ways of tanning but the benefits of spray tanning outweigh the negatives.

   “It’s really fast because it only takes a second while tanning in a bed takes longer. If I wanted that kind of tan I would lie in the sun.”

   According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, 10 minutes in a sun bed matches the cancer-causing effects of 10 minutes in the Mediterranean summer sun.

   Some students argue that the price of spray tanning is too expensive compared to the price of tanning in a bed. At Aruba Sun and Spa in Cockeysville, the walk-in price for students ranges from $8 to $20, based on the level of tanning the student desires. The price for a student walk-in for the spray booth is $20.

   Others believe that spray tanning is risky. “I’d be scared to do it because I would mess up and have lines all over my body,” Mattson says.

   While some are going out of their way to tan, some think that damaging their skin or risking a spray tan is pointless.

   “People need to think about the consequences instead of stupid things like looking tan enough in a dress,” senior Kate Shipley says.