A man looks completely unrecognisable after injecting himself with synthetic peptide Melanotan II for several years.

For most of us, achieving the sunkissed look comes from either sitting out under the sun’s rays or cracking open a bottle of fake tan.

But for the extreme tanners among us, the above doesn’t quite cut it. Instead, some people have resorted to injecting or inhaling a peptide to achieve their desired look.

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One example of this is an unknown man who shared some pretty shocking before-and-after images while using a drug known as Melanotan II on Reddit.

Also referred to as the ‘Barbie drug’, it’s a synthetic hormone-like peptide which is either injected or inhaled through a nasal spray

According to Cancer Research UK, it ‘stimulates the pigment cells in your skin to produce more melanin, and this makes the skin look darker’ – and it is illegal to sell and supply in the UK. The charity warns that these kinds of products are ‘not safe to use’, but one bloke hasn’t been put off chasing a sun-kissed look.

The social media user, who posted under the username Melanotan2, responded to a series of Reddit threads from curious sun worshippers last year to offer some insight into what taking the so-called ‘Barbie drug’ is like.

At the time, he claimed he has been taking it for ‘roughly 17 years’, and explained he would ‘always do a loading phase’ to allow his body to adjust before basking in the rays.

According to the Melanotan II fan, it ‘takes nearly two weeks to kick in’ before lounging in the sun will bring about any results, while he also explained that the peptide also ‘does nothing to protect you from sunburn’.

“It doesn’t do anything to protect you [from the sun], what it does is trigger your body to make more melanin,” he wrote in one thread.

“So be careful with sun exposure in the beginning. It will take around two weeks before you can take ANY sun.”

He advised people to keep a close eye on any moles ‘for changes in size or shape’, explaining that they ‘can get lost amongst your tan’, along with freckles.

The fella said he had experienced a couple of side-effects, such as a ‘decreased appetite’, as well as revealing that he dealt with another ‘strange’ consequence after taking the substance.

“The most strange thing is that it feels really good to stretch, like when you first wake up,” he wrote. “I get that every time I dose, about 1hr 30 after injection.”

He claimed that sticking to his strict Melanotan II schedule had got him ‘awfully close’ to reaching his desired level of tan – although in a lot of people’s eyes, he’d already gone way too far.