Aunts nearly started to get a kind of skin damage (6)
I believe the answer is:
suntan
'a kind of skin damage' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'aunts nearly started to get' is the wordplay.
'aunts nearly' becomes 'san' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'started' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'start of' mean this).
'to' becomes 'unto' (I've seen this before).
'get' is an insertion indicator.
'unto' with its final letter removed is 'unt'.
'san' enclosing 'unt' is 'SUNTAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for suntan that I've seen is " Bronze".)