As I mentioned, I was at a festival on Saturday night, messing about with my new telephoto lens. Somebody spotted this extraordinary tan line, and I took a quick photo (I’m not, despite the apparent appeal, in the habit of surreptitiously photographing teenagers). Since then, an offline debate has raged with regards to the authenticity of the tan. There’s also a sub-debate that, assuming the tan is fake, discusses whether it came from a tanning studio or bottle.
I try to avoid the sun at all costs, and have embraced my pastiness. As such, I’m useless in deciding this critical issue.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
As a veteran tanning booth/sunless tanner user, here’s my $0.02 on the issue:
Point A) Sunless-tanner will leave the skin a much less natural shade of orange – real brown only comes with real sun.
Point B) Most tanning-bed users will do so in the buff to avoid such unsightly lines. Also, if you look at the back of her left arm, it’s decidedly less brown underneath than on top – nearly impossible to achieve in a tanning booth, considering the lights surround your entire body.
I’m drawing the conclusion that her tan-line, while strange and glaring, is (enviably) the product of a teenager who has not much better to do than spend her summer days stretched out on the beach.
Obviously, you haven’t spent much time in sunny locations. There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that tan line. Very common, and there’s no reason to suspect that it’s fake.
Jen: Thanks for the thorough analysis.
Bill: Well, I do live in Vancouver.
It would be awfully difficult to self apply Tan in a Can quite that straight…natural or her boyfriend airbrushes vans for a living.
As an Aussie, a lover of the bikini and expert on all things related to the sun. I can unequivocally state the following:
1. The tan is not fake.
2. The girl is not wearing any obvious panties
3. She does not sunbake in a thong
4. She will one day see the photo and all of our comments and [rightfully] feel violated and cheapened by the experience.
I’m pasty, too, but I had a friend who tanned like that 20 years ago (pre-tanning beds, that is). After one day at the beach she’d have crisp, well-defined tan lines.
I grew up in the Okanagan, during a time when all self-respecting young women would lie in the sun coated in baby oil in order to get that fried-to-a-crisp look.
As a healthy young man, I observed hundreds and hundreds of them from all sorts of distances. I also observed a few from closer distances, and as one educated in the subject matter, I’d offer the opinion that that line is entirely natural.
Okay Jen already says it above, but I would have thought it to be really obvious:
If it’s fake, there wouldn’t be tan lines at all.
Who goes to a tanning salon for tan lines? People go specifically to avoid such things.
actually Rog i know girls who go to the tanning salon, and tan with bathing suits on for the specific purpose of getting tan line lol. They think its sexy lol…i dont know whats sexy about patches of white but w/e lol all to theyre own i suppose.