Miss Kansas First To Show Tattoos, Try To Use Archery As Skill

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Over the past five or six decades, large segments of society have run toward modernity. Sports have gotten safer. Cars have gotten more efficient, but pageants, well, pageants have really only inched along. Women are still booted for making less than wholesome choices, and while it’s not a requirement, most of them still look a very certain way. If Theresa Vail has it her way, however, that uniformity might soon change, giving us a new generation of competitors who have little in common with the stereotypes.

In the upcoming Miss America Pageant to be held later this week, Vail, aka Miss Kansas, has decided not to cover up her tattoos. Instead, she will become the first contestant in the history of the competition to walk across the stage with ink showing. This week, she took to her blog to explain the decision in a lengthy post entitled God, Grant Me The Courage To Change The Things I Can.

You can read an excerpt of it below…

”Now, many still believe that Miss America is apple pie and pearls. However, in the job description of Miss America it clearly states that “she must represent contemporary women between the ages of 17-24.” The operative word here is “contemporary,” synonymous with modern! 1 in 5 Americans have at least 1 tattoo. If I were crowned Miss America, bearing my tattoos, do you realize the stereotypes and stigmas it would break? Do you realize it would pave a path for a whole new audience to compete in the Miss America Organization? As of right now, the stigma is girls with visible tattoos do not compete in pageants, and certainly do not win. I want to break that. I am a traditionalist, I am conservative and I am a God-fearing woman. Having tattoos does not negate any of those. Think about it.”

It takes a rebel or an outsider to shake up the establishment, and Vail is most definitely a member of the latter category. She competed in her first beauty pageant just nine months ago and had to make a frantic adjustment at the last minute when organizers told her she wouldn’t be allowed to use archery as her talent. She'a also an expert marksman, but luckily, she was able to pick up opera pretty quickly and went on to win Miss Kansas.

Apart from the tattoos, she’ll be just the second active duty member of the military ever to compete. Vail is currently a sergeant in the US Army, and she has the medical insignia inked on her body, as well as a portion of the Serenity Prayer. Personally, I would have loved to watch her bust out some sweet archery skills, but I suppose I'll have to be content to watch her stroll around in a bikini.

Win or lose, Pop Blend wishes Vail nothing but the best as she keeps being hot weirdo herself. Even if there's not a place for her as Miss America, I bet there will be a spot open for her to compete on Top Shot.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.