Risks of Melanotan: TGA to issue fresh warning against 'Barbie drug' The Australian It doesn't take much to fall down the Barbie Drug rabbit hole. In self tanner subreddits and on TikTok Shop, the tanning injectionaka Melanotan IIis marketed as a self tanner alternative that works by Your body already makes a hormone that tells your skin to tan. Melanotan 2 is a synthetic peptide engineered to mimic that hormone but in a version that's more potent and longer lasting than Melanotan II in Santa Barbara, CA Eternity Health Partners