news editor says tattoos are classless and worthless.

An excerpt:

Ladies, I know you’re at least at the legal age of making your own decisions, but before you decide to get a tattoo, allow me to let you in on a little secret. A secret you may have not fully realized yet thus far in your life. What you must understand is, as women, we are – naturally – beautiful creatures.

Seriously, though. Your body literally has the ability to turn heads. Guys drool over us. We hold some serious power in our hands, because – as corny as this sounds – we hold the world’s beauty.

But something girls seem to forget nowadays, or maybe have not been taught, is that women hold the world’s class and elegance in their hands, as well. So what’s more attractive than a girl with a nice body? I’ll tell you what: a girl with class. Looks may not last, but class does. And so do tattoos.

An elegant woman does not vandalize the temple she has been blessed with as her body. She appreciates it. She flaunts it. She’s not happy with it? She goes to the gym. She dresses it up in lavish, fun, trendy clothes, enjoying trips to the mall with her girlfriends. She accentuates her legs with high heels. She gets her nails done. She enjoys the finer things in life, all with the body she was blessed with.

But marking it up with ink? That’s just not necessary.

The real issue, here:

she implies that only women can have/hold class and elegance (um, should I forward you a few photos of George Clooney and Ewan McGregor now or later?)
she implies that men aren’t naturally beautiful, don’t turn heads, and don’t “hold the world’s beauty” (the effusive female praise surrounding the Tumblr search results for the “Ryan Gosling” and “Michael Fassbender” tags begs to differ)
she implies that an elegant and classy man CAN get a tattoo without it affecting his elegance or class (which is true… but blatantly suggests that she doesn’t view men and women as being equal — would she say that Angelina Jolie ceased being classy when she got her tattoos?)
she implies that a man getting a tattoo can be necessary, whereas it would never be necessary for a woman (again, a completely arbitrary distinction between two groups who I’m sure she would agree should be treated equally)
she flat-out says that a woman having a tattoo could eventually impede her ability to convey values and morals to her future grandkids (newsflash: if your grandfather fought in World War II, there’s a pretty good chance he has some ink on him and I don’t know anyone who would say they had difficulty accepting the values and morals imparted by their grandfather simply because the guy had a tattoo)

So really, this is not only exceedingly judgmental… it’s completely sexist in both directions, too (yeah, a guy finally gets to play that card!).

If you don’t like the way tattoos look on women, that’s fine — it’s just an opinion/personal taste. But to vilify or cast aspersions onto the character of any woman who has a tattoo and imply that it inhibits her ability to be beautiful or moral? That’s slander. And pretty gross.

[Also, the statement “she enjoys the finer things in life, all with the body she was blessed with” immediately following the championing of high heels, trendy clothes, and manicured nails seems at best contradictory and truthfully, just stupid. So she’s totally fine with a person modifying his or her appearance on a daily basis (makeup, clothing, shoes, hair care, et al) but to do so permanently is somehow unacceptable? I assume this also means she’s against plastic surgery and orthodontics.]

(Source: writers-never-die)