You know sunburn

Some dermatologists use ultraviolet (UV) photography to show their patients how the sun has damaged the skin. In the following patient photographs, the two photographs on the left in each series were taken in ordinary light and show what is visible to the naked eye.

The picture on the right was taken with a UV-light camera and illustrates the amount of damage that lies beneath the surface of the skin.

At age 18 months, sun damage is not yet apparent.

At age 4 years, early sun damage is evident.  Notice the freckling across the nose and cheeks.

The photograph above shows that this 17-year-old already has significant sun damage.

This 37-year-old woman has subsurface sun damage, which is clearly visible in the photo on the right.

At 52, this woman has "prematurely aged" skin in visible light and significantly sun-damaged skin in ultraviolet light.

This 64-year-old beach community resident has skin that chronicles a lifetime of chronic sun exposure.  UV photography is not necessary to see that her skin is dry, inelastic, wrinkled, and heavily mottled.