A photograph that appeared with this article was deleted April 28.

An editor’s note was added to this article April 28.

The photograph accompanying the April 27 article “Tanning may produce more than golden glow” should have been labeled a photo illustration. Photo illustrations are posed by the photographer. The Daily regrets the error.

Anna Brantz has a pesky and permanent reminder of her time in Ames.

“It was a fungus that made your skin bubble up and turn pink,” said the former ISU student from Missouri Valley.

During the 2002 spring semester, Brantz tanned in Ames, but doesn’t remember the salon’s name. This is where her dermatologist suspected she picked up the fungus.

“She was 99.99 percent sure it was from tanning because she’s seen it before in tanning bed cases,” Brantz said.

Brantz has tinea versicolor, a fungal rash that comes from a yeast called pityrosporum orbiculare. The yeast is normally found on human skin and can be washed away by normal cleansing. But, when the temperature and humidity is high — like from sweating skin in tanning beds — the cells grow out of control and colonize on the skin. This causes the pigment to lighten and be unable to tan, forming pale patches.

Brantz’s dermatologist told her the fungus will never completely go away.

“It’s not curable,” Brantz said. “It’s treatable. She gave me antifungal cream and told me to use Desenex on the affected area.

“It’s very spreadable by contact,” she said.

It can spread by skin-to-skin contact or skin-to-contaminated item contact.

“So when you break out, you can’t tan or you’ll spread it,” Brantz said.

Tinea versicolor isn’t the only thing that may be hiding in a tanning bed, said Dr. Timothy Abrahamson, a dermatologist at Greater Des Moines Dermatology.

Warts, human papilloma virus, herpes and staph infections could all be spread in tanning beds, he said. He compared it to wrestlers and anything on the mats.

It’s hard to know where someone actually came in contact with them, he said.

“Staph infections are so common, anyway. Wart and herpes viruses are latent,” he said.

“It’s pretty hard to actually associate tanning beds with those things.”

Amy Hoffman, senior in industrial engineering, said she does not think about any health risks when she tans.

“I just do it,” she said.

She said she has been tanning for nine years and has used all the salons in Ames. She said she hasn’t had any problems.

“If they clean [the beds] off really well, the risk should be really low,” Abrahamson said.

Contact surfaces of tanning beds are required to be cleaned by the operators after each use, or they can be covered by a non-reusable protective material, according to Iowa Code.

Abrahamson said, however, people should choose a good facility that can be trusted.

“If you have 100 people through there, and it’s never been cleaned off, you could obviously come in contact with something,” he said. “Personally, if I was getting in there, I’d want sprays and cleansers in there so I can wipe it down myself.”

Brantz agreed.

She said she still tans, but she has become more selective about where she does it.

“I don’t go to a place where they just run you in and out,” she said.

She also found a place that leaves the cleaning solutions in each booth. She cleans the bed herself, leaving the disinfectant on the bed for a few minutes before wiping it off.

“I spray it down, put on my tanning lotion, then wipe it down,” she said. “Always.”