Tanning Mom Becomes Talk of the Nation

The tanning mom facing charges for taking her 6-year-old daughter into a tanning booth insists she's innocent. Meanwhile, her appearance has become the talk of the nation. INSIDE EDITION has the latest.

The tan-o-rexic mom accused of taking her six-year-old daughter to a tanning salon, is the talk of the nation, and making front-page news with her beyond-bronze face.

The headline on the New York Post said, "Toast of the Town!"

"Roasted Nut" read the New York Daily News headline.

Patricia Krentcil's husband is very upset by the attention.

"Ridiculous. I think they're just trying to sell newspapers. The whole thing has blown up, totally," said Krentcil's husband.

And it's absolute "tan-demonium" as the late night comics have a field day with Krentcil's shocking appearance.

Jay Leno said on The Tonight Show, "Do you know the worst part of the story? That's what she looks like in May. What's she gonna be like in August? Oh my God!"

On Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, Kimmel said, "She looks like Wile E. Coyote after the dynamite stick blows up."

But one man doesn't think it's funny. Dr. Joshua Zeichner, a top dermatologist at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center, has never seen anything like it.

Dr. Zeichner told INSIDE EDITION, "There are reports that she went to a tanning booth 20 days out of a month, which is really shocking to me."

Believe it or not, one woman sees nothing wrong with Krentcil's appearance. Trisha Paytas was featured on the TLC show My Strange Addiction for her daily tanning habit.

Paytas said, "I look at it and think, 'Wow! She just took tanning to a whole other level.' She's a little dark there, but I've made myself that dark. I mean, to say someone has a problem is a little much."

Most people do not agree.

Meanwhile, we're learning new details about Krentcil's tanning obsession. The forty-four-year old has been visiting tanning booths since her early 20's. She's uses a $99 unlimited monthly pass to tan 12 minutes every other day at a tanning salon in New Jersey. That salon has now banned her and revoked her membership.

One perplexing thing is the way Krentcil's appearance seems to go from dark to even darker within a matter of days. Some believe she may have supplemented tanning bed treatments with spray-on tans.
 
Krentcil says her child was never in the tanning booth and has pleaded not guilty to felony child endangerment. She faces up to ten years in prison if convicted.

And no matter how that works out, most everyone agrees that Krentcil needs to stop her obsessive tanning habit.