A Cork doctor is raising concerns about young people using tanning injections.
Dr John Sheehan says he is concerned people are starting to use them again now that restrictions are lifting.
"The idea behind them is that they're basically melatonin that people inject into your skin.
"Melatonin is something that stimulates melanocytes and is produced and it makes melanin in your skin, which gives people that tanned sort of appearance.
"The difficulty with it is that I've come across recently someone who has been injecting this into their skin.
"It's bought on the internet or they usually get it from friends: it's a completely unregulated and illegal medication.
Dr Sheehan says people are usually not forthcoming with the information.
"People are very reluctant to admit to their GP that they're injecting something like this.
"I recently came across an 18-year-old girl who admitted it, and I suppose my concern is I didn't see her for the last year and a half, probably because there was no social event to be going to, there was nothing happening - so it really didn't matter whether you were tanned or not.
"But now as things are opening up, we're beginning to see more people who are going to sunbeds.
"I came across this for the first time in over a year and a half, so that's my concern.
"Now as things are opening up there's this pent-up energy to get out and live and things."
And he says the side effects associated with such injections are really unknown.
"The main side effects tend to be nausea and cramps and things like that with it.
"But the difficulty is nobody knows what they are, you just go on the internet and buy them.
"So you could be buying anything made up that's called this - so that's the difficulty.
"And then the other difficulty is are people injecting: are they using sterile needles and all the infections and things like that associated with that".
