Dylan Wright, 28, from Colchester in Essex, said his skin turned so dark he looked like “Madge from Benidorm” and is now left with the freckled skin of a 60-year-old

A man is warning against “dangerous” tanning injections after turning so dark he “looked like Madge from Benidorm “.

Dylan Wright, 28, was desperate to take full advantage of the scorching sun during his mini-break to Sitges, Spain, so he tried to get ahead of the game.

The customer service worker bought £10 tanning jabs online to speed up his bronzing and injected two before he left for the airport.

But he said by the end of his six day trip, his look garnered states from fellow holidaymakers and he is now left with the freckled skin of a 60-year-old.

A startling image posted to TikTok in December shows Mr Wright with bafflingly dark arms and face as he smiles drink-in-hand with best pal Jake Bolton, 29.

Other snaps show him posed on his balcony and sat with a cocktail, sporting dramatically contrasting bleach blonde hair and a white shirt he says made him look like “a pint of Guinness”.

The tanning blunder left him with dry skin and permanent new freckles that sparked a cancer scare, so he is now sharing the images from his July 2014 holiday as a warning to others who may consider the controversial injections.

Tanning jabs contain the lab-made hormone called melanotan II, which increases the melanin production in the skin and can cause an increase in moles and freckles.

Mr Wright, from Colchester, Essex, admits he spent nine hours per day in the sun and should have only injected one rather than two jabs, but says he was young and “felt invincible” at the time.

After highlighting his fail in a light-hearted TikTok video, some users commented showing interest in the injections, and he’s since warned them against it to avoid having aged skin through sun damage like him.

He said: “The doctors called me an idiot and told me it’s a side effect from the drug, but now I’m stuck with them.

“I’ve got loads of freckles all over my arms and my face. I’ve got freckles like I’m in my 50s or 60s.

“It feels like my skin’s aged. I’ve still got the marks to show for it and it can have long-lasting effects.”

He joked: “After I saw the photo I thought ‘oh my god, this is not cool’. I was more concerned about looking like Madge from Benidorm. I felt it really aged me and I didn’t look great.”

The sun worshipper said he had forgotten about the injections and though they probably would not work because he bought them online.

“I think you’re only supposed to inject one of them but I was scared of taking syringes through security so I wanted to take two so they’d last the holiday,” he said.

“Because the injections make tanning more efficient, being in the sun for nine hours a day is like being in the sun for a week every day and that was the problem.

“Looking back I laugh and my friends always ask me to show new friends because they always can’t believe it.”

After jetting back to the UK, Mr Wright’s parents could not understand why he was so dark-skinned because he refused to tell them what he had done, fearing their reaction.

He has since come clean and has now posted to share his embarrassment through a light-hearted TikTok, raking in more than 50,000 views.

However, he does feel there is an important message to be learned and is encouraging any tan-hunting holidaymaker to avoid the injections he took to dodge the long-term marks he is left with.

“I definitely learned my lesson. It’s really not worth it. There’s safer ways to tan, like fake tanning,” he said.

“I’ve not been on a sun bed since. It gave me a wake-up call. As you get older I’ve changed my habits. It’s a classic case of being 20 and thinking you’re invincible.”

Mr Wright’s TikTok video now has more than 300 comments with some people still keen to try out the jabs.

One person commented “I need this” while another said “this is horrific.”

Another joked: “This is the best thing I’ve seen all day.”