Many women across the United States and Canada right now are feeling very discouraged and even defeated. These women all have one thing in common. They were all contestants in the Inked Magazine cover contest. 

For many being on the cover of Inked Magazine is like a dream come true; it's a chance to be a model, it's a chance to be seen and to be heard. And it is believed to be achievable through this contest. 

All you have to do is get enough votes to make it to 1st place at the end of numerous rounds.

Against thousands of other women. 

But...

Theres also a paid voting option where people buy extra votes by donating to the Musicares Program. Votes even go on sale 2 for 1! A lot. Almost every other day.

Which is fine except in the last paragraph in the terms and conditions on the contest site, there's an article that states;  Anyone who is purchasing votes in the competition is not directly donating to musicares you are simply buying votes.  Inked Magazine promises 25% of all contest proceeds to musicares. 

Which is a strong business move on their part. Thousands of women want to be on the cover so they will push for people, friends and family to "donate". So the magazine makes hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars in one contest period. They make a small donation and most likely get the tax write off afterwards. 

The more one looks at the contest, the more you can see it's not a fair playing field. Between paid votes, and just the way the contest is set up. 

This petition exists not to end the Inked Magazine Contest but to change it.

Below are numerous suggestions on how the contest could be changed to make it fair for all women. 

The first point to be made, is the paid votes. It's clearly unfair to have it in a way where someone can literally by their way to the cover. 

Since Inked Magazine is a business, ending paid votes seems unlikely (although most contestants want it that way), a suggestion would be to put a cap on the paid votes. 

Right now there is only a $10 minimum each time you pay for votes. You can purchase multiple times a day, throughout the round. No limit. 

Maybe each round should have a cap that is reasonable to all contestants.

If each contestant is able to raise $100-$250 each round that seems more fair.

If there are over 10,000 contestants each raising $100 of paid votes in the first round alone that would be at least $1,000,000 dollars that Inked Magazine would still be making. 

Or maybe in the preliminary rounds, each round could have a maximum cap of even $300. Then end paid votes for the quarterfinals and on. 

Or maybe instead of capping a round you cap each payment. So one person's card can only make one donation a day, or a round with a max of $10-$25. 

The 2 for 1 days, where you can buy double the votes, should be once in a round. Not 3-4 times a round. 

Something along these lines would make it a thousand times more fair for contestants. 

There's lots of ways the purchased votes could be limited so contestants couldn't "purchase" 1st place in a round/contest. 

Apart from paid votes, some girls have a few hundred social media followers. Some have thousands to 50 thousand or more followers. It would make sense to have 2 contests (an amateurs league and an influencers league). 

Or limit it to women who aren't influencers, covergirl models, TV personalities or big business owners.

This levels the playing field a bit, and gives more "average" women a fairer chance. 

A screening process on who is in the contest, on the quality of photos, tattoos etc. Contestants shouldn't be allowed to only post photos with heavy face altering filters. 

No nudity photos would be nice as well, as Facebook is a mandatory need to be in this contest and Facebook flags inappropriate photos, and other contestants report each other etc. 

Multiple winners could also be a plus. The suggestion would be to have a 1st place winner -keeping the grand prize of being on the cover, 2 page spread and $25k. 2nd place winner could have a 2 page spread and smaller cash prize. And 3rd place winner could get one page in the magazine along with a small cash prize, or being published could be their prize. 

All we ask is for change, and a fair competition.