Skin tone

During summer (the second half of June to September) it is possible to get a tan. By standing in the sun long enough (note that there must be a clear sky outside and it must be during daytime), the player's skin will go up through levels. There are 5 different levels, each one having a darker tan then the other. The tan, however, will appear the following day.

Getting a tan in City Folk
One can get a darker tan in the summer by walking anywhere in the sun for long enough. If a player has the darkest tan (Level 5), it will stay Level 5. But if they take a break and don't go into the sun, their tan will change into Level 4 and so on. A tan will disappear a little bit every day if the player hasn't been walking around in the sun each day. Also, a tan will begin to disappear on rainy or cloudy days. There are five levels of a tan, each one darker than the last.

You can get a tan from June 16th to September 15th. The game has to have a clear sky outside and it must be during daylight hours (when the clock on the upper left-hand corner of the screen has a full picture of the sun, which should be between 8 AM and 5 PM, depending on the time of year). The only thing that stops a tan from appearing is an umbrella.

The second option to get a tan is to use a Mii Mask. You can get a Mii Mask at Shampoodle. Choose a makeover.

A tip for knowing if one is actually tanning is to make a plain pattern that is skin colored (Palette 10/16) and wear it as a shirt, in the sun. As the player tans, the player will start noticing that their character's skin is becoming darker than the shirt, and it will become very noticeable after about 2 to 3 hours.

Animal Island
During the winter months, it is still possible to get a tan by taking Kapp'n's boat to the island on Animal Crossing. The restrictions seem to be the same. Note however that the islander on the GBA is not affected.

Preventing a tan
To remove a tan, the player should go out with an umbrella, or should not go out during daylight, or should stay inside. Drastic measures include Time Traveling or staying off the game for long periods of time. Hats will NOT stop tans from appearing.

Removing the tan

 * Take precautions. When going outside on sunny days, the player should use an umbrella or anything that will block out sun completely.
 * Be aware. The player shouldn't play too long outdoors on sunny days. If it's raining, the player cannot tan, so the player is safe then. The player also cannot tan when it is nighttime, so they should try playing then.
 * Wait it off. Tans will fade after a while, and with some extra help it should be gone in no time.
 * Stay in a building or animal's house for about an hour. Turn the game off and save, time travel to the next day, and then repeat. Keep doing that for a while and the player's tan should eventually start to fade.

Keeping the tan

 * In the afternoon, 3pm is the best time for tanning.
 * (For Nintendo DS) If one decide to leave their character outside, unattended, for a tan make sure they leave the Nintendo DS lid open or else there will be no effect.
 * Be sure it is between 16th of June and 15th of September.
 * Be sure it is between 5:00 am and 8:00 pm