Tanning injections: what melanotan II did in human studies
Tanning injections here means products sold as melanotan II. The names and forms are set out below.
The direct tanning trial was small. It had 3 men. 2 of 3 had more skin colour one week after trial treatment ended (PMID 8637402; verified 20 August 2026). The team used a reflectance test.
NIH RePORTER links PMID 8637402 to NCI project P01CA027502. The grant link was checked 22 August 2026.
A 2021 paper counted 623 public posts from 205 people in UK and Ireland forums. People wrote about tanning before trips. They also wrote about tanning before fitness or bodybuilding contests (PMID 34464955; verified 20 August 2026).
The sections below keep trials, forum posts, case reports, product tests and agency records apart.
Go directly to:
- The full melanotan II guide
- What tests found in vials
- What a certificate of analysis can and cannot prove
- The compound register entry
What are tanning injections?
The names are easy to mix up. They do not name the same thing.
| Name or feature | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Melanotan II | A cyclic form of alpha-MSH. The 1996 paper calls it a lactam-bridged cyclic heptapeptide. | PMID 8637402; verified 20 August 2026 |
| Sequence | Ac-Nle4-Asp5-His6-D-Phe7-Arg8-Trp9-Lys10 alpha-MSH4-10-NH2 | PMID 8637402; verified 20 August 2026 |
| Melanotan I | A different molecule. It is afamelanotide, the active substance in the EU-authorised medicine Scenesse. | EMA medicine record |
| Melatonin | Not melanotan II. | Name distinction |
| Pigment pathway | A 2026 case report calls melanotan II a man-made peptide in the melanocortin hormone family. It says the peptide activates melanocortin 1 receptors on melanocytes and raises eumelanin output. | PMID 41752902; verified 20 August 2026 |
This page uses melanotan II for the rest of the answer.
Do tanning injections work?
The direct human trial found tanning activity. It involved 3 men in a Phase I study. The study was single-blind and placebo-controlled. Treatment took place on alternate days (PMID 8637402; verified 20 August 2026).
Two men had more pigment in the face, upper body and buttock. The change was present one week after trial treatment ended.
The abstract records mild nausea at most melanotan II levels. At the highest level reached, one of two men had grade II sleepiness and fatigue. It also records erections that lasted from one to five hours.
We read the abstract and database record. We did not read the full paper. Its own limits remain behind a subscription.
What did the other human studies measure?
Three more human papers studied men with erectile dysfunction. They did not test tanning.
The papers do not add three separate groups. The 20-man paper says it reviews the team's work. Its men match the two earlier groups of 10. We count 23 distinct people across all four papers, not 43.
| Paper | What it measured | Result recorded in the abstract | Funding metadata we could access |
|---|---|---|---|
| PMID 9679884 · 10 men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction | RigiScan erection monitoring over 6 hours | 8 of 10 men developed clinically apparent erections. Mean tip rigidity above 80% lasted 38.0 minutes with melanotan II and 3.0 minutes with placebo. | NIH RePORTER links PMID 9679884 to NIDDK project R01DK017420. It also links the paper to NCI project P01CA027502. PubMed currently renders the NCI identifier as P0L CA 27502. Verified 22 August 2026. |
| PMID 11035391 · 20 men with psychogenic and organic erectile dysfunction | Review of the same group's ED experience | 17 of 20 men had penile erection without sexual stimulation. Increased sexual desire followed 13 of 19 melanotan II administrations and 4 of 21 placebo administrations. Severe nausea was reported in 12.9% of subjects. | Europe PMC holds no structured grant record for this paper. The full text remains unread. |
| PMID 11018622 · 10 men with organic erectile dysfunction | Double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study | Erections were reported after 12 of 19 melanotan II injections and 1 of 21 placebo injections. Mean tip rigidity above 80% lasted 45.3 minutes with melanotan II and 1.9 minutes with placebo. | NIH RePORTER links PMID 11018622 to NIDDK project R01DK017420 (verified 22 August 2026). |
All four human papers came from one research group at the University of Arizona. The papers appeared from 1996 to 2000.
The table keeps each result with the funding data we could reach. It also keeps the unread full text marked as unread.
What did users discuss in forums?
One published paper counted public forum posts. Gilhooley, Daly and McKenna collected 623 posts from 205 people. The posts came from UK and Ireland forums. They ran from January 2016 to October 2017 (PMID 34464955; verified 20 August 2026).
The paper grouped posts by why people used it and by false claims. It also grouped posts about how people prepared and used products. Other groups covered sunbeds, unwanted effects and risky acts.
Forum evidence is self-reported and self-selected. The study did not test the products in the posts. It did not measure how common any effect was among all users.
The raw thread below is also self-reported and self-selected. It comes from ExcelMale. That makes it a male and gym-led source. It does not stand for the whole tanning audience.
A positive tanning account
FlowRW wrote in My Melanotan 2 experience (thread fetched with HTTP 200 on 20 August 2026):
Red hair. Very fair skin. Always in the sun, burn, turn red, peel, white again. Never had a tan in 60 years. All the other stuff would turn me an un-natural ugly orange [...]. Then Melanotan 2 came into my life. Incredible! I love it. The occasional chubby or woody is an appreciated bonus.
A positive account with nausea and no libido effect
ERO wrote in the same thread:
I have used this to tan before going to Hawaii as I am very light-skinned and it allows me to get a seriously dark tan so I don't have to cover myself in SPF 100 sunscreen when I go to the beach. Never got much in the way of libido out of it, but if you want a dark tan that lasts and lasts, I would rate it 5 stars. [...] it can give you some SERIOUS nausea and even vomiting.
The omitted sentence gives administration advice.
An account with no tanning effect
Jntsrgn wrote in the same thread:
Update... tried Melanotan 2 for two weeks [...]. Noticed nothing but profound joint aches. No significant skin changes and no increased libido, erections or dreams. A bust for me.
The omitted phrase gives an amount and timing.
These are reports from three people. They do not give a rate. They do not prove a shared view.
What have case reports recorded?
An exact Europe PMC search used this query: ("melanotan II" OR "melanotan-2") AND (PUB_TYPE:"Case Reports"). It returned 27 hits on 20 August 2026.
The count is a floor from one search and one date. We do not turn unread reports into findings. The full list of IDs is on the melanotan II guide.
| Report | What happened | What the source does not show | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denmark, 2014 | A 20-year-old woman with Fitzpatrick type II skin had a black lesion. A tissue test found melanoma. She had used self-injected melanotan II for 3 to 4 weeks. The course ended three months before the lesion was removed. She used it to add to a sunbed tan. | The authors wrote that melanotan II and sunbed use coincided with melanoma. They did not say melanotan II caused it. | PMID 24355990; verified 20 August 2026 |
| Germany, 2014 | A 24-year-old male bodybuilder reported many new naevi 24 hours after one injection. He also reported darker old naevi and a tan over all his skin. He said he used sunbeds at least once every four weeks. The visible text says he had bronzed skin and more than 100 moles. | PubMed has no abstract. The journal page stops after its first paragraph. We did not read the tests, follow-up or discussion. | PMID 24334249; verified 20 August 2026 |
| Oral pigment, 2026 | One person used melanotan II over 64 days for a deeper tan. Brown colour appeared on the gums in both jaws and on both inner cheeks. One month after stopping, the cheek colour had almost gone. Three months after stopping, gum colour remained but was less strong. | This is one person's timeline. It is not a general timeline for recovery. | PMID 41752902; verified 20 August 2026 |
Each row stays with its own person and limit. A case report does not give a rate for all users.
What has been measured in products sold as melanotan II?
Two forensic abstracts deal with products sold as melanotan II. They answer narrow lab questions.
| Paper | Samples and method | Finding | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Eight unknown samples held by police; LC-HRMS | The paper characterised melanotan II and bremelanotide. The abstract says the samples were meant for the black market for bodybuilders. | The abstract gives no purity result, no test for unwanted material and no count of label matches. PMID 33245851; verified 20 August 2026 |
| 2024 | Two vials that looked like medicine and carried a melanotan II label | A reference sample confirmed identity. The team measured 30% purity. | Two vials, one case and one lab. The abstract does not identify the other 70%. PMID 39302005; verified 20 August 2026 |
These tests describe the samples in the rows. They do not describe an untested vial.
What does the Swedish medicines agency say?
Two Swedish records answer two narrow questions. They do not prove the same thing.
| Record | What it says or contains | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Läkemedelsverket health page | Sweden's medicines agency advises against all use of melanotan II. It refers to reported skin cancer, nausea and vomiting. | The page gives no case count or paper. It does not say melanotan II caused the cancers. |
| Swedish product file, 22 August 2026 | The file had 38,369 rows. A full-row search found no match for melanotan or melanotan II. The same search found semaglutide, tirzepatide, somatropin and afamelanotide as controls. | This is a dated result from one Swedish file. It does not prove a status across the EU. It does not turn afamelanotide into melanotan II. |
The file search is an absence result. The health page is a separate agency statement. Neither one is a trial or a product test.
What does this page not answer?
This page gives no steps for using a product. It gives no steps for preparing one. It does not name sellers.
This page does not say melanotan II causes melanoma. It does not give a rate for any case-report result.
This page does not cover nasal sprays. Melanotan II nasal spray has separate case-report leads. One is PMID 40210573. An injection-led page cannot answer that route.
Questions about tanning injections
Do tanning injections work?
Yes, in one small Phase I study. It had 3 men. 2 of 3 had more skin colour one week after trial treatment ended (PMID 8637402).
What are the side effects of tanning injections?
The human abstracts list nausea, sleepiness, fatigue, yawning, less appetite and erections. One ED paper reports severe nausea in 12.9% of subjects (PMID 11035391).
How long do tanning injections take to work?
The tanning trial found more skin colour one week after trial treatment ended. The result was present in 2 of 3 men (PMID 8637402). This page gives no steps for use.
Are tanning injections safe?
There is no one rate for all results. The trials cover 23 distinct people. One database search found at least 27 case-report records. Two papers report product tests.
Is melanotan II the same as melanotan I?
No. They are not the same molecule. Melanotan I is afamelanotide. It is the active substance in the EU-authorised medicine Scenesse.