Published: May 06, 2009 06:53 pm         

Wabash Valley lawmaker shocked by nude spray-on tan case

LINTON — A state lawmaker says he plans to sponsor a bill next session that would bar adult males from applying spray-on tans to female juveniles at tanning salons.

State Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville, said he was shocked by a recent case where an adult man who works at a tanning salon applied a spray-on tan on a nude 15-year-old girl.

Borders said he can't believe there's not a law prohibiting that type of activity.

"I think it's important not only for the customers but for the business that no one be put in any kind of compromising position," he said.

Borders said he, along with State Rep. Sandy Blanton, D-Orleans, will seek to introduce legislation next session putting restrictions on spray-on tanning. He said he isn't sure what form the proposed law will take.

A Greene County woman, Brandy Holtsclaw, said she was furious when she learned her 15-year-old daughter got a spray-on tan while nude from a grown man at a Linton tanning salon.

Her daughter had forged a note from her mother. The tanning salon's owner said that when he entered the booth to apply the tan last month, the girl had taken off all her clothes. He proceeded to apply the tan and then left her to dry.

Holtsclaw said she looked into the matter and learned that her teenage daughter did not need parental permission, nor is there any statute to prevent a juvenile from being nude inside a spray-tan booth with a male technician.

"Maybe it's not illegal, but it should be," Holtsclaw said.

A California woman who owns an airbrush tanning training center who heard about the Linton incident has contacted Borders, offering to write a letter in support of his legislation.

"There has been some outrage in the tanning community about this, and many people believe that the man should have taken some things into consideration before agreeing to what he did," said Kelly Richardson of Santa Rosa, Calif.

Richardson said she would never allow a male to apply a tan to a juvenile girl. Her business also prohibits women from applying a spray-on tan to a naked man.

She said her spray-tan clients often wear a bathing suit or their underwear, but that some do want a full body tan and wear nothing.