How long after having sunburns can you get skin cancer?

Repeat sunburns bad : Repeated bad sunburns lead to a higher chance of getting melanoma skin cancer. Although the rarest skin cancer it is potentially the most fatal skin cancer. Most adults with a long history of heavy sun exposure will start to see the common basal cell skin cancers developing around age 60. Those are almost always cured with a relatively simple excision.

Skin Never Forgets: I tell my melanoma patients that are 70 years old that their melanoma was mostly like causes by a severe sunburn they had when they were 12 years old. The skin never forgets.