What should I know before buying a tanning bed membership?

if ya don't care about the cancer risks.. then there ain't too much left to know....
call a place and find out how much it cost

You should know: you will come out looking orange. All you would need is to roll into a ball and have some black stripes painted on, and you'd look like a basketball.

You can use enhancer creams in some tanning salons as I have done and they are very thorough with the tan that you want to achieve. Plus the creams are pricey.

NEVER EVER go to a salon that lets you put money in to use the tanning bed or stand up bed. Always use a salon that have control over the beds and keep records cos you shouldn't use a bed for more than 20 times in a year.

Good luck and hope this helps :-)

What midlifemadness said.

That the Sun is free first and foremost. Also, that a tanning bed is 'accelerated tanning' so spend significantly less time in that to acquire the same 'tan' as you would outside. Remember that your skin will continue to darken well after getting out of the tanning bed, thus don't assume nothing happened just because you aren't 'tan' just a few hours later. Make sure you protect your eyes! As bb said that UV is super intense and can easily and quite quickly damage your eyes. Use an Aloe Vera and Vitamin E based lotion for 'after tan' moisturizing.

tanning bed can kill you. but what you want to make sure is that you are using a standing tanning booth rathe than a bed. shop around in your local area and thiknabout how far you are willing to travel to do this to yourself. once you have found a reputable and cheap place ask if they will give you a new customer discount or somethign like that. and before you sign anything make sure you get a tour of the whole salon and maybe meet some of the staff and see what other customers think of the place. once you think its a decent place, double check thay are up to code (all this is to ensure you dont get fried like in final destination3)

The sun won't cost you anything, and it's much more enjoyable. Plus you can multi-task in the real sun-light... try washing your car in a tanning salon!