Colin Kaepernick's tattoos under fire.

San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick's tattoos are the subject of a column this week criticizing the young signal caller's ink.

AOL Sports David Whitley wrote a column criticizing the tattoos and remembering days where NFL signal callers were ink free.

At least that you could see.

"For dinosaurs like me, Whitley writes in the column, "NFL quarterbacks were our little Dutch boys. The original hero stuck his finger in the (dike) to save Holland. Pro QBs were the last line of defense against the raging sea of ink. When our kids said they wanted a tattoo, we could always point to the Manning brothers."

He started the column by referencing tattoos and prison inmates.

Whitley bashed Kaepernick’s inked-up appearance saying he looks like he "just got paroled."

Mom is not happy...

USA Today talked to Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, the parents who adopted Colin as a baby.

The paper noters that they weren't happy with the analysis comparing their son to inmates.

"It annoyed me," Teresa said. "You are categorizing this kid on something like tattoos? Really? Saying other guys are role models because they don't have them? Really? Some of these other guys don't have crystal clear reputations. That's how you're going to define this kid? It's pretty irritating, but it is what it is."

Should it matter?

Will it cost Kaepernick endorsements?

Check out lots of photos of his tattoos here.