Scene Description

Southern Ray's Tanning Salon

The front of Southern Ray's Tanning, as seen by those who
walk by.

            The front of Southern Ray’s Tanning salon is constructed of several large glass windows that meet a brown and red brick wall about four feet from the ground. On the righter window hang two banners that stretch vertically to cover the length of the window. Both of them are trying to attract customers by showing off Southern Rays latest products and a special offer. On the left side window before the metal plate that separates the glass door, hangs an electric ‘Open’ sign. The sign shines bright red to alert all who pass by that they can come on it. Blow this sign is a list of their hours of operation for a seven day week. At top of the window, hung on the inside, are white blinds, pulled all the way up. These windows allow any person who walks by to be able to see in on exactly is going on inside.

The glass door chimes when pushed in, trying to signal to anyone within earshot that is has moved and made way for a person to either enter or exit. The temperature inside is much warmer, a noticeable difference compared to the wind chill outside. This warm environment immediately adds to the fake sun and beach charade, when in reality it is only a byproduct from UV light bulbs. Also a byproduct of the lights in the tanning beds is the continuous background noise of running fans. Oddly, there is no music playing out in the lobby, or in the rooms, which is common at most all other tanning salons. The air here smells of a mixture of burnt skin and tanning lotion that tries to be fruity, but does not quite accomplish the goal. The walls are all painted the same light beige complimented with white crown molding. The door is also white. None of the walls reach the ceiling, however; they are set up in place in attempt to separate the entire area into smaller rooms. This gap between the top of the wall and the ceiling reveal the overhead lights shining down into each room. Escaping from some rooms is a purplish light that glows out from the tanning bed.

The left hallway, that is directly in line with
the front door. 

Parallel to the top of each door protrudes a black square card that has a white number written printed on it. So every room has a number that belongs to it, and at times, temporarily to a customer.  The floor is a combination of a light brown hardwood floor and a dark gray carpet. The front counter has a blue top and is home to a bunch of papers that contains all the prices and packages available to customers. There are different levels of tanning beds, and as the levels go up so do the benefits from the bed. For example a level one is a simply regular UV bulb, where as a level two bed has a face tanner and level three has a bronzing effect. Behind the front counter sits a collection of brightly colored and gaudy decorated plastic squeeze bottles of tanning lotion. These tanning lotions all promise to enhance the result of a single session tan. In the middle of the product lines sits a 32in plasma screen television that airs a continuous tutorial walking through a proper spray tan procedure. There are two female workers on duty that post up behind the front counter, both ore extremely friendly to all of the customers.

Two customers sign in a the front desk.

A majority of the members to Southern Rays are women, but there are a few men in the waiting room and coming out of beds. Almost all of them are young adults, many students from the University of Kentucky, made evident from black, white, blue UK apparel. All apparel worn by customers is casual comfy, seeming to be a portrayal of people treating tanning as one of their daily errands or a chore since they come in and out in about thirty minutes. As each of these customers do come in they all follow the same procedure, this is obvious from the repetitive amount of times it was done. They start by giving their name to the person behind the desk, last then first, along with the amount of time desired for tanning, all in quick succession. Once signed in there is a designated waiting area indicated by the row of metal chairs up against the wall. After that initial conversation with the employee most of the people keep to themselves, sitting quietly playing on their phones. However, when a group of girls come in together they are laughing and talking the entire time, until they are separated by bed assignments. At night Southern Ray’s is busier, attracting many girls who all know each other. I casually asked a few of the people waiting beside me why they were tanning right now, and they all had a consensus of wanting to be tan for the upcoming spring break. That is the case for one guy I spoke with, who had never previously used a tanning bed before, but wanted a base tan to prevent his skin from burning once in the Florida sun. Some girls are year round tanners and do so for the benefits of tan skin and a relaxing outlet.

            Once the bed I wanted was available and cleaned I was given the O.K to enter and begin my tanning session. The little room I was assigned had a metal chair that was identical to the one I had just been sitting on in the lobby. Placed upon the chair was a light blue towel folded up neatly. Directly above the chair towel was a rectangular mirror with a white frame, along with a taped up piece of white paper asking all tanners to please remove their trash and used towels once finished. On the adjacent wall hung one single white plastic hook. This room was very cheaply built and decorated compared to a competing tanning salon, Sun Tan City. Sun Tan City has plays fun music, has a finger-scan sign in, and hangs metal hooks. However, the machines are the same design. The stand-up tanning bed was in the back corner, standing as the main event. This stand-up bed is designed to do as exactly as its name, to allow a person to stand up inside verses the conventional lay down bed.

This bed looks like a giant pod-like machine. It has two doors that are open showing off the inside walls that are lined with long white bubs kept in place by a protective glass covering. The bottom is a metal sheeting with holes cut out so air can ventilate through. At the top are two yellow monkey bars that hang down in order to provide balance and support for the person inside. Once the start button has been pushed the whole bed turns on and the bulbs come to life like a fast sunrise, starting out slow and then blindingly bright. With the light comes a noise from below as the fans begin to run in an attempt to counteract the heat resulting from the Ultra Violet rays. Once running for a while the bulbs become very hot, almost as if one truly has been lying out in the natural sun for hours. As a result of this, I broke out in a sweat all over my body. Since there is no music it is difficult to not focus on how warm it is in the little pod. So when the time is up and the bed automatically shuts off, it is a relief to be able to walk out into the cooler air I originally thought was too toasty.

Once all of the tanners are redressed they all exit their rooms with flushed faces and frizzy hair around their faces from sweating. I am assuming reading the sign in the rooms is how they all knew to throw away their towel and trash. Leaving a few seconds after the door to the bed opened, they were walking out the glass door, barely stopping to say thanks in response to the workers “have a nice day”. And just like that each customer leaves with a different tint to their skin and go about their business.

            Southern Ray’s Tanning is a community of Lexington residents who find it important enough to pay money for a darker skin complexion. As earlier mentioned, Southern Ray’s is more cheaply put together than other tanning salons, comparably Sun Tan City. Southern Ray’s is not a chain store like Sun Tan City, and only has locations here in Lexington, KY. This makes it apparent that Southern Ray’s is a locally started and run business, probably started strategically placed close to the University of Kentucky’s campus to cater to its students. Which also explains why the owner did not invest a large amount of money into the décor and materials of the shop.

In the future when choosing a community to enter and explore, I want to provide more detail about the people in the scene versus the scene itself. I feel as if I was more on observing aspects about the background of the scene such as the tanning salon itself instead of finding out more about the people who visit it. That being said I was to go for a completely new scene on our next project, although, having some prior knowledge on this particular scene proved very fruitful in writing up my scene description.