Styles not being overridden with image - html

Question

I have a web page with a set of links I styled that lead you to other pages. One of these pages is a gallery of photos.
When I try to link the thumb-nail to the larger image, I get this black border about 2-3 pixels high and slightly wider than the thumbnail. I have tried everything to override and get rid of this, but nothing I do seems to work.
a:link,a:visited {
display: inline;
font-weight: bold;
color: #FFFFFF;
padding-top: 10px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
padding-right: 30px;
padding-left: 30px;
margin: 10px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration:none;
border: 2px solid black;
}
a:hover {
background-color: #3bb2cE;
border: 2px solid black;
transition-property: background-color;
transition-duration: 1s;
}
a:active {
background-color: #3bb2cE;
border: 2px solid black;
}
.link2 a:link, .link2 a:hover; .link2 a:active {
margin: 10px;
border: none;
}
link2 is what I am trying to override the CSS with. It's not working even in the HTML:
<a class="link2" href="images/stairs1.jpg"><img src="images/stairs1_thumb.jpg" /></a>
<a class="link2" href="images/staris2.jpg"><img src="images/stairs2_thumb.jpg" /></a>
Here is an image of what is happening:

Answer 1

If you can't remove the border, and you merely need to overwrite the border, use:
a.link2 {
margin: 10px;
border: none;
}
jsFiddle example - it works.
Your other styling, (.link2 a:link, .link2 a:hover; .link2 a:active), wasn't being applied.
The selector, .link2 a:link is selecting an a elements, who is a link, and child of an element with class .link2.. this obviously doesn't work, as .link2 is the a element you are trying to remove the border from.
Simply put, just use a.link2, which selects an a elements with class .link2.
As the demo demonstrates, this will effectively overwrite the initial styling, removing the border.

Answer 2

Remove this from your css
border: 2px solid black;

Answer 3

no need to remove any css
http://jsfiddle.net/cancerian73/bX4WH/1/
a:link, a:visited {
display: inline;
font-weight: bold;
color: #FFFFFF;
padding-top: 10px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
padding-right: 30px;
padding-left: 30px;
margin: 10px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration:none;
border: 2px solid black; /*for no border remove this*/
display:inline-block; /*add this*/
}