Kim Kardashian is attempting to do some damage control after getting blowback for her in-office tanning bed, which doctors are calling “irresponsible.”
This week, the media mogul took to TikTok to show off a tanning bed in the offices of her skincare brand, SKKN. “I’m Kim Kardashian,” she crows in the clip, which has racked up over 16 million views, “of course I have a tanning bed.”
Social media users promptly called her out for promoting an unhealthy practice—the National Institute of Health found that tanning bed use before the age of 35 increased the risk of melanoma by 75 percent—especially since her sister Khloe had a melanoma tumor removed from her face in 2023. Meanwhile, doctors took to their own accounts to remind people that “there’s no such thing as a safe tan.”
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Kardashian, however, caught wind of the backlash and said her tanning bed usage serves a specific purpose. On Friday morning, she shared a post on X that linked to an Allure article with the headline “Please, Kim Kardashian, Don’t Try to Normalize Tanning Beds.”
“I have psoriasis and it really helps when it’s bad,” Kardashian wrote in response, “but I don’t use it too often.”
Kardashian’s history with psoriasis is well-documented; she once sampled her sister Kourtney’s breast milk because she’d read that it could help ease the condition, which causes itchy, dry patches on the skin.
But Dr. Susan Bard, a dermatologist at Manhattan Specialty Care in New York City, told The Daily Beast on Friday that Kardashian’s promotion of tanning beds isn’t helpful for people dealing with psoriasis.
“I’m sure her tanning bed eases her psoriasis, but that’s not the right way to go about it,” Dr. Bard said.
“In professional settings, we can deliver a very precise amount of ultraviolet radiation at a very specific wavelength” to treat the condition, she added. “Home tanning beds have numerous different uncontrolled wavelengths, and there’s no real limit to the duration of exposure.”
If Kardashian “really wanted to treat her psoriasis, there are so many safe medical therapies out there that ultraviolet is no longer necessary,” Dr. Bard added. “Back in the day, when we were limited in our therapies, we used a lot of phototherapy. But as we have advanced, as medicine has advanced, and technology and science has advanced,” ultraviolet radiation treatment has become less crucial, she said.
Dr. Samer Jaber, a dermatologist with Washington Square Dermatology, reiterated those concerns, telling The Daily Beast, “Not only does it increase your risk of skin cancer, but indoor tanning also results in premature aging as it increases wrinkles, brown spots and decreases skin elasticity. Red light does not damage the skin and has been shown to be effective for psoriasis, so if you want to try a home treatment that is safe for psoriasis you can try red light.”
Overall, Kardashian promoting the use of tanning beds to treat psoriasis is “incredibly irresponsible,” according to Dr. Bard.
“It’s not that it’s incorrect,” she clarified. “It does make her psoriasis better. But that’s like saying heroin makes your PTSD better because it makes the bad thoughts go away. I’m sure it does, but that’s not the best way to go about it.”
