#Curtis Sliwa shows off tan line after removing famous beret at rally

Curtis Sliwa takes a hard line on crime — and on tanning.

The Republican mayoral nominee took off his famous Guardian Angels beret at a rally Friday and revealed a well-defined tan line separating his pale head from his tanned face, a photo snapped by The Post shows.

The 65-year-old Brooklyn-born politician, who removed the hat for the National Anthem at a protest against closing Rikers Island jail, admitted it was one of the rare times he removed his trademark headpiece in public.

“That’s one of the few shots,” said Sliwa.

“I even sleep with the beret on. I fall asleep with the beret right on my head and wake up with it right on my head, which drives my wife, Nancy, crazy.

“She’ll scream, ‘Are you ever going to take that beret off your head — it’s growing onto your head!’ And I say, ‘It’s an appendage wherever I go, it goes,” he said.

The military-style headwear only comes off on “rare occasions,” like on trips to church or moments of national pride, he said.

“Two things people say to me when the beret is off: First the tan line — ‘Oh my god, it’s like two different people.’ And then, ‘Where’s your hair?’” Sliwa quipped, in reference to his thinning gray locks.

But the bald truth about why he’s so attached to the cap is that it serves as a symbol of  the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group he founded, and a reminder of the importance of keeping Gotham safe, he said.

Guardian Angels members wore the berets as part of their uniforms after they began patrolling the Big Apple’s drugs-and-violence-plagued streets and subways more than 40 years ago.

“The beret, people say, ‘Why do you wear it all the time?” Sliwa said. “Obviously crime is the number one issue and the beret is synonymous with our crime fighting for 42 years, but boy it has dual purpose,” he said.  “It covers up the missing hair and it covers up the tan line.”

On Friday, Sliwa rallied with dozens of protesters at Queens Borough Hall to oppose a $9 billion plan to replace Rikers Island with four borough jails – citing costs and safety concerns about spreading crime to other communities.