This Sunday's Miss America pageant will be a little different from past years.
For the first time in history, a contestant will expose her tattoos during the bikini portion of the competition.

Theresa Vail looks the beauty pageant queen part, but is different than one would expect.

That bold contestant is Miss Kansas, Sgt. Theresa Vail, who also happens to be the second contestant in the military to compete in Miss America.

Vail, 23, will be breaking a long-standing taboo with her two giant tattoos - the insignia for the U.S. Army Dental Corps on her left shoulder and the Serenity Prayer running down her right side.

'Why am I choosing to bear my tattoos? My whole platform is empowering women to overcome stereotypes and break barriers,' the Miss America hopeful explains to People magazine. 'What a hypocrite I would be if I covered my ink. How can I tell other women to be fearless and true to themselves if I can't do the same?'

Much of Vail's confidence comes from being an expert M16 marksman, a skydiver, a boxer, a mechanic, fluent Chinese speaker, and a bow hunter who can skin a deer and apparently cooks a mean squirrel stew - skills not usually associated with beauty queens.

'4:30 am workout...adapt and overcome! #ThereSheIs #MissAmerica #ArmyStrong' Vail tweeted last month.

'Nobody expects a soldier to be a beauty .