Influencer feud erupts as Mikaela Testa calls out 'stupid' Skye Wheatley for promoting dangerous tanning after her father tragically died of skin cancer

Mikaela Testa has reignited her online feud with Skye Wheatley by launching a searing attack on the fellow influencer for recommending dangerous sun tanning and promoting the use of sun beds. 

The TikTok and OnlyFans star, 25, revealed how she tragically lost her father to melanoma in a fiery rant posted to TikTok on Sunday. 

'Skye Wheatley, I am calling you out directly,' she said.  

'Why the f**k am I seeing young, female Australian influencers posting to their Stories using canola oil, not SPF, to bake in the sun to get that "perfect tan"? And then on top of that, using solariums,' Mikaela fumed. 

'These devices are illegal for a reason. Are we forgetting that our UV outside on a normal summer day on the coast is between 11 and 14? 

Skye, 30, has been slammed by her followers for promoting the use of collarium sun beds before. 

The commercial use of sun beds has been banned nationally in Australia since 2016, due to their high risk of causing skin cancer. However, they are still advertised commercially in parts of the country.

According to Mikaela, the Big Brother winner deleted a new video promoting collariums from her social media over the weekend, in which she said the UV sun beds are safer than old school solariums. 

'Again and again and again, you just do the most stupid sh*t online,' Mikaela said. 

'Collariums and solariums are illegal in Australia [for commercial use]. Are the police going to be knocking on her door? Probably not.

'But I'm going to say something and for any women that watched her video and somehow think it's better for them. It's not.' 

Daily Mail Australia wasn't able to source the specific video which Mikaela is referring to, however in 2023, Skye took to her Instagram Stories to say that she is not responsible in any way for what her 661,000 followers choose to do after promoting the sun beds online. 

'Are we serious?' Mikaela continued in her TikTok. 

'I am the biggest fake tan enthusiast. My father died from skin cancer. I watched my dad get a melanoma and then fade away within four months.' 

The OnlyFans model clutched a dozen fake tan bottles in her arms for emphasis. 

'This is pretty. This is cute,' she exclaimed. 'You know what's not cute? Dying from melanoma. You know what's not cute? Looking like a 40-year-old woman when you're 20-years-old.' 

Her comments come as young Australian influencers are leading the resurgence of sun baking as an aesthetic trend online and promoting UV 'tanning routines'. 

Almost half of Gen Z Australians said they deliberately use less or no sunscreen when ‘working on their tans’ in a 2023 study by La Roche Posay and the  hashtag #sunburnttanlines has more than 200 million views on TikTok.

'I don't want to be that boring girl that's ruining the vibes - but as somebody who has had a parent literally die from this disease - I cannot express enough how scary this is,' Mikaela said — as she pleaded with her 2.4million TikTok followers to protect themselves. 

The TikToker explained that her dad's melanoma was so tiny, that it wasn't visible under a microscope. 

'He started off with a cold. The cold lasted about four weeks. I ended up coming home to take care of him. We go to the doctor, they think it's pneumonia. Antibiotics didn't work babe because it was f**king cancer and it was travelling at the speed of light.'

'From that, it travelled to his lungs, all over his body. He had a 6cm tumour in his left lung and a 3cm tumour in his right lung,' Mikaela said as she held back tears. 

'We were told it was stage four, and to go home and prepare for him to die.

'My heart broke into a million pieces because if my dad had, months prior, gone and gotten a check and cut it out - maybe he'd still be here. 

'I know people at my school that have died from this.' 

Sun bed users have a 20 per cent higher risk of developing skin cancer, including melanoma, and that risk jumps to 59 per cent if the artificial tanning bed is used before the age of 35, according to Queensland Health. 

Mikaela then turned around and peeled back the top of her T-shirt to show scarring from two pre-cancerous moles that she said have been cut out of her back.  

'We have the highest UV on earth. Even with protection, it's not enough. You need to get tests and checks and stay out of the sun.' 

She ended the video, which has been viewed 2.8million times in 24 hours and liked 387,000, by repeating Skye's name with an expletive and a head shake. 

The vast majority of 1520 comments made at the time of writing are in support of Mikaela. 

Skye, who in recent months has admitted to suffering from body dysmorphia, has faced fierce backlash for promoting cosmetic surgeries and sun bed tanning throughout the past decade. 

She was heavily criticised in 2017 for saying she wished she was a 'naturally tanned Aboriginal' so she'd have darker skin instead of having to use fake tan. 

'I was trying to be a different race,' the influencer said at the time. 

In 2019, Skye announced she was giving up tanning because it was 'f**king [her] skin'.

'Just scroll back down my feed and you'll see just how...' and the former Big Brother star hesitated before adding, 'tan I was'. 

'I was going to say something else, but then I'll be called a racist and I just can't deal with that drama.' 

Skye and Mikaela's feud began 12 months ago, when Mikaela called the blonde a 'laughing stock' for posting a video shaming women who earn a living from OnlyFans.