In a country where fair skin is prized and both men and women spend large sums on skin-whitening pills or lotions, Joey’s magazine, named “TAN,” naturally, is something of a hard sell.
When Thais visit the beach, they often wrap themselves up in beach towels or wear long-sleeved spandex outfits. Magazine models are usually ivory-white. Around Siam Square, Bangkok’s equivalent of New York’s SoHo or Shibuya in Tokyo, skin-whitening clinics abound.