A permatan is, in informal British talk, a tan that never seems to fade — or the person who has that look — because they keep using sunbeds or products that colour the skin. The joke in the word is perma- (as if permanent) plus tan. It is often not kind. Magazines and gossip use it to tease a brown that looks painted on, orange, or always the same, winter and summer. It is about white people making their skin brown on purpose, not about people whose skin is naturally brown, and not about one week on a beach. Students in Taiwan will rarely meet it; the habit is more a UK tabloid thing than a local one. It is slang, not a science word, and it can sound mean.

永久古銅膚。台灣較常說「常年曬黑」或「美黑床曬出來的古銅色」，沒有完全對應的詞。