The Changing Face of Beauty

Miss America with tattoos? It could have been. There is one young hottie (and so much more) that’s gotten a lot of buzz in this year’s Miss America Pageant. Mostly because of her tattoos.  While Miss Kansas didn’t win (she made it to the semi-finals.) She is definitely setting a new bar for contestants and young women alike.

Who knows if Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, is REALLY the FIRST young women to compete with tattoos… Some tiny ones could have been well hidden under those barely there bikinis in previous years. But, Miss Kansas, is sporting two tats that are very visible.

In a recent interview with CNN, Miss Kansas was quoted as saying,

"I'm all about breaking stereotypes… Everybody thinks of Miss America as this girl on a pedestal. I want her to come down from that. She is just a normal girl."

One of Vail’s tats is of the Serenity Prayer. It runs all the way from her hip up to her armpit. The other tattoo she has is because of her plans in the field of dentistry (it's a military medical insignia.)

Is seems in this day and age, Miss Kansas, with her tattoos is almost the norm. According to a Pew Study from 2010, 40 percent of ‘millennials’ (teens and twenty-somethings in the states) have ink on their skin.

She is the first to compete with large tattoo. She set the bar for a lot of firsts actually. Vail is in the U.S. Army and loves to hunt deer. In fact, she was going to showcase her archery skills as her talent, but as she announced before performing Sunday night, she had to sing opera by default. Unfortunately, the Miss America Pageant has a tiny clause that states no projectile objects. Vail is also working on getting her private pilot’s license all while attending Kansas State, double-majoring in Chemistry and Chinese.

You go girl! What a true renaissance woman!