It is always a good idea to separate style from content using css, so I'd prefer this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;

my $q = new CGI;
print $q->start_html(    -title=>'Your page',
                        -style=>{'src'=>'/css/default.css'}, 
                    );                   
#
# yada yada yada
#
                  
print $q->textarea( -name => "bar", -class => "inked" );
print "\n";
[download]

of course you need a separate css-file:

.inked {
 background: #E0E0F0;
 border-width: 1px;
 border-style: solid;
}
[download]