tanning

“Sometimes I think if I did more sit-ups and went to the tanning salon, I could have a lot more power than I do now,” he said.

The products are promoted on social media and are readily available to buy online, while the BBC has also found beauty salons and tanning shops advertising them for sale.

Research has shown that a carotenoid-rich diet, which can enhance a healthy golden glow, is often perceived as more attractive than sun-induced tanning.

"So, preventing young people from smoking, or from tanning, or from other obvious carcinogenic exposures are probably even more important than we thought."

“I haven’t had to alter my body in that way,” says Strong, who underwent a doctor-supervised “starvation diet” and a regimen of tanning booth visits and biweekly spray tans to match Cohn’s notoriously leathery look.