The human melanocyte is continuously exposed to intrinsic and extrinsic sources of reactive biochemical species, but is finely tuned via the intrinsic anti-oxidant and radical properties of melanin to suppress the build-up of an altered redox phenotype. We propose that this control is lost during melanomagenesis and inappropriate redox-sensitive transcriptional factor activations occur which result in enhancement of an anti-apoptotic phenotype in the transformed cell. This conceptual framework offers testable steps to determine the role of redox alterations in the carcinogenic evolution, prevention and treatment of melanoma and other diseases of the melanocyte.