Tanning addiction is, and isn't just that.
When Michael Jackson's skin kept getting lighter and lighter -- allegedly an effort to even out the white blotches caused by a case of Vitiligo -- it was commonly (and flippantly) said that he was "addicted to plastic surgery." Similarly, when Caucasians take to beaches and tanning beds and brown themselves like rotisserie chickens despite dermatologists' warnings that overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light can cause skin cancer, the media is inclined to say that they are "tanorexic," "tan-oholic" or "addicted to tanning."
Should we take those diagnoses seriously?
It's easy to see why people might over-tan. Tan and fit and thin will get you hired and admired. Whereas Jackson's skin-lightening was frequently attributed to self-hatred, seeing light-skinned people darken themselves doesn't strike us as self-repudiating.
The racial cast of this bias, if not its exact socioeconomic meaning, was not lost on Jackson himself, who said to British journalist Martin Bashir in "Living With Michael Jackson":
"How many white kids sit out in the sun all day to look black? ...They're trying to be other than what they are. But that's okay, I guess. Right?"
Well, more like half-right. 
Many white people do tan to transform their status -- but not to become "black." They do it for the same reason Jackson did: to look "whiter," which is to say "classier," more glamorous and widely accepted.
Alas, trading a pasty white skin for a yachtsman's confident glow is similar to what Jackson did not only in short-term payoff but also in long-term price. Eventually, as with super-tanner Donatella Versace, a sun-abused hide cries, "old" and "lizard-like" instead of "suave" and "healthy." Like Jackson the over-bleacher, the over-tanner becomes a grotesque.
Obviously, over-tanning is a folly. But, is the obsessive pursuit of beauty, wealth and status through skin tinting comparable to the neurochemical dependence we associate with addiction? As yet, only a few wisps of substantiating research support this claim.
One study, out of the University of Texas in Galveston, showed that when you swap "tanning" for "alcohol" on standard psychological questionnaires -- including the DSM-IV-TR -- between a quarter and a half of beachgoers will come up positive for addiction. The study's sampling, however, was small, and, like any survey-based study, founded on self-diagnoses, it lacked rigor.
Another study suggests that sun exposure may produce addictive doses of endorphins, so that tan-addicts when forced to stop sunning experience something like physical withdrawal. But the word to take away here is "suggests." No sun-induced endorphins have as yet been detected.
The established existence of S.A.D., or Seasonal Affective Disorder, also shows that sunlight, for some, acts as an anti-depressant. It is conceivable people might crave to excess anything that helps them feel less dismal. But is there really such a thing as a physical dependency on UV light? At this point, the science just isn't there.
Few dispute, however, that over-tanning is destructive over time, physically, and cosmetically. If calling it an "addiction" helps people kick the habit then the metaphor is a useful public health approach whether or not it is scientifically sound.
Because social reinforcement and fashion are obvious factors in this behavior disorder (Victorian ladies never ever over-tanned,) at this point the best move is to encourage efforts by the vampire fan base to bring back the romance of pallor. Because as long as we are all "addicted" to the sight of a tan, we're cooked. Whatever habit-forming qualities the sun may have will join forces with that greatest of American obsessions -- the one that Michael Jackson nailed so well: The drive "to be other than we are."
NOTES:
1. The two studies cited are:
UV light tanning as a type of substance-related disorder.
Warthan MM, Uchida T, Wagner RF Jr.
Department of Dermatology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555-0783, USA.
Arch Dermatol. 2005 Aug;141(8):963-6
and
Induction of withdrawal-like symptoms in a small randomized, controlled trial of opioid blockade in frequent tanners.
Kaur, M., MD, Liguori, A. PhD, Lang, W. PhD, Rapp, S.R. PhD, Fleischer Jr A.B., MD, and Feldman, S.R. MD, PhD.
J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006 Apr;54(4):709-11
2. While no one advocates over-tanning, the evils of moderate suntanning are controversial. Just how fatal UV exposure is, and under what circumstances, is under some debate, in large part because Vitamin D, which sunlight exposure increases, has so many beneficial effects. A few renegade scientists advocated moderate tanning, but they haven't yet swayed the others.
The medical establishment continues to assure us that an overdose of UVBs and UVAs can be as malignant as whatever drug cocktail Michael Jackson overdosed on, and advises us to minimize sun exposure, while getting our vitamin D through supplements, until a clearer case is made for running around without a shirt, hat and sunscreen.
