Novelty Items - December 29

Coco Chanel, founder of the fashion house that still bears her name and epitomises the French talent for chic, is commonly credited with having invented the suntan in the early 20th century. Before Coco, the fashionable complexion of the time was flawless, freckle-less porcelain. After she chose to expose her face to the kiss of the Cote d'Azur sun parasols were furled, lotions were designed to encourage the skin to change colour and the concept of sun-bathing was born.

Decades later, despite dermatologists warning of the damaging rays of the flaming sphere around which the earth orbits, an international amorphous tribe of sun-seekers still exists. For these devotees, Dubai, with its guaranteed winter sunshine, is paradise. Pale-faced, they flock to its azure sea and white sands.

Cast your eye around the beach or swimming pool this weekend, and you will see a handful of such worshippers undergoing various stages of the initiation process. First, there are the novices, identifiable by their curious piebald skin. On their normally white bodies abstract patches of random red will glow, showing where they have failed to appreciate the sun's strength and left the skin to burn unprotected. For the truly inexperienced, an afternoon's snooze will signal the end of their holiday. Blistered and in agony, they will retreat to their curtained hotel rooms and stock up on calamine lotion.

Next up are the amateurs who favour suntan lotion, understand what factor 15 is and can wax lyrical on the advantages of using after-sun creams. Despite this, they never quite manage to tan every visible part of their anatomy, but achieve a blotchy effect, not as pronounced as the novices, of course, yet neither completely satisfactory. With a few more holidays they may turn professional.

Professionals have transformed the simple act of lying in the sun into an art. They turn themselves as though meat roasting on a spit and apply the contents of a pharmacy at calculated intervals throughout the day. You can tell a professional at a glance by his dark, seemingly honey-dipped skin that glows with colour even in difficult-to-tan areas, the backs of the knees, elbows and ankles.

For a select group of such professionals, the decision to tan or not to tan is not merely an aesthetic or health issue, but has more serious implications. In Japan, a new group is emerging. Called gungoro, (literally 'blackface'), these teenagers defy convention by tanning themselves until chocolate brown, bleaching their permed hair and applying dramatic make-up.

Rumour suggests that they apply fake eyelashes with model glue and use marker pens as eyeliner. Society insists that such affectations will not be tolerated in the workplace: suntan equals unemployment. So the gungoro live for the moment, enjoying this individual expression while they are still teenagers and spending enormous sums of money on designer clothes to complement their modern look. Chanel, apparently, is a favourite.

Claudia Thomas is a Dubai-based freelance writer.