How The Sun Sees You: A Reminder To Use Sunscreen (Video)

Think your skin is perfect? Think again.

Thomas Leveritt is an award-winning U.S.-born artist based in London who has his hands in multiple forms of media. He’s recently been making waves for a video he created in which he showed random New Yorkers what they looked like under the unforgiving rays of the sun.

Most of the people stepping into the light are horrified to discover that they are much more freckle-faced than they realized, which may be an indication of damage wrought by the sun. People from various races are tested; one woman with darker skin just shrugs like, “Whatever. No freckles here.”

Do be careful, though, as skin cancer affects all races. Yes, it’s more prevalent among whites and Asians, but it does still claim the lives of people of all races. The pigment in darker skin actually tends to hide these growths, making it a little more difficult to detect at first, so everyone needs to slather on some sunscreen.

Plus, according to the video, we’re all the same color when we put on sunscreen. Slate explains the phenomenon, saying, “The camera detects UV from the sun that’s reflected off people’s skin; the point of sunscreen is to absorb that UV so it doesn’t even reach the skin. Since no UV is reflected from sunscreen, it appears black in the video, even though in visible light it looks white.”

Use that sunscreen, people!