Vacation Weight Gain, Barcode Tattoos, and 80s Nostalgia: Stories You Won't Hear Elsewhere

Welcome back! After a brief hiatus for a Tunica getaway (where I may have strayed from my diet and gained three pounds—but who's counting?), I'm diving into three bizarre stories that mainstream media won't cover. Take a break from the usual news cycle with these fascinating tales that highlight the strange and wonderful world we live in.

First up: a Swiss woman so devoted to Red Bull that she spent $600 on a functional barcode tattoo that actually works at self-checkout registers! Complete with a worm design chomping on the code, this permanent scanner has gone viral with millions of views. Is this the ultimate brand loyalty or a concerning glimpse into our consumer-driven future?

Then we'll explore wedding party drama featuring a bride who shocked her bridesmaid with an extensive spreadsheet detailing nearly $1,000 in required expenses. From $500 dresses to $300 hair and makeup sessions, this bride's transparency about costs raises interesting questions about modern wedding expectations and friendship boundaries.

Finally, meet Violet Skye, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who's built an entire career around 1980s nostalgia despite never experiencing the decade herself. With her teased perm, vintage wardrobe, teal Camaro, and partnerships with iconic 80s brands like Def Leppard and Esprit, she's turned her passion into a thriving business. Her story reminds us how powerful nostalgia can be, even for eras we never personally experienced.

What was your favorite band from the 80s? MTV opened up a whole new world for my teenage self in rural Southern Ohio. Share your thoughts, and don't forget to check out my blog at Americanist.com and sign up for my newsletter for weekly content updates!

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Chapters

• 0:29 Back from Tunica Getaway
• 1:29 Red Bull Barcode Tattoo
• 4:10 Bride's Shocking Bridesmaid Expenses
• 6:50 Living in the 80s: Violet Skye
• 10:04 Question of the Day

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hey, good morning, we are back. Yes, the gent and I had a little getaway. We went to Tunica Left Wednesday night, actually Stayed Thursday, friday, saturday, came back home Sunday. That's why there were no episodes last week on Wednesday, thursday or actually Thursday and Friday. But I'm sure you fared just fine without my remarks. You fared just fine without my remarks. But we're back Back to schedule, back to routine. Yes, I went hog wild off of my diet, started off okay during the weekend, but eventually it was horrible. I gained back three pounds. But that's okay, that's all right and you know what. We're going to move on. We're back to it now, back to the routine, back to the schedule, back to the diet and everything's going to be fine.

Speaker 1: 1:07

You are not here to hear about me, bitch about that we have. I'm bringing you three stories, because that are you're not going to hear anywhere else except for New York Post, because that's where I got them. But they're so different and unusual. Some of them are uh, they're not about Iran. Okay, I don't bring you stuff like that here on the podcast on a regular basis. Sometimes I'll talk about stuff like that, but you're going to hear that on mainstream media all day long. You don't need to hear it from me too, because, uh, yeah, we're going to talk about other stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:37

We're going to talk about this girl. The swiss woman is such a fan of red bull that she reportedly got the energy drink cans barcode tattooed on her skin and it amazingly works at the self checkout. Here we are sign of the beast, okay, uh, so this woman is such a fan and she shows a video of her utilizing this functional body art has racked up over 7.9 million views on tiktok. I was thinking about gettinga barcode tattoo for some time. The woman named do oh god, you're kidding me told Jam Press of her drink-inspired ink job. Coincidentally, the content creator, who goes by MyCringes-t yeah, that sounds about right on social media was initially thinking of getting a tat of broccoli or something silly, but then decided on Red Bull after thinking energy, oh dear Dew reportedly dropped the equivalent of over $600 on the tattoo which features the barcode being chomped by a worm. Okay, I then added the worm which is chomping it up, based on a little drawing my sister did do explained of the body art which evokes the barcode themed skull tattoo from the hitman games. All right, this is way over out of my life. She shows pictures of her using the scanner, scanning it, and it works okay, whatever, whatever, wow.

Speaker 1: 3:20

The Swiss woman couldn't believe that the barcode was functional, as even her ink guy had his reservations. I knew it possibly couldn't work, as my artist was very open about it. The content creator exclaimed I tried to the next day at work and it did. I was so excited about it work and it did. I was so excited about it. Oh my gosh, she was excited about the scanner working on her skin, on her tattoo, y'all. We have failed our young people. But that's over in switzerland, so maybe we don't have to worry about it over here. I don't know right. We're moving on to the next one.

Speaker 1: 3:59

A penny-pinching bride shocks bridesmaids with outrageous spreadsheet of expenses Feels wrong to me Now. Look, it's been a while since I was, since I've gotten married and, yes, I had a church wedding with the gent, but I don't remember doing all this because I wanted it to be super casual. I think I told my I didn't even want to have bridesmaids actually, but I did I had and I told them look, just go get a champagne color dress of your choice from wherever you want to get it from. Nobody has to match, except for the color. I want you to get a dress that you'll wear again. Okay, so it was, you know, pretty laid back, I think, a bride. But here we go, we're going to talk about this.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Uh, let's see, a bridesmaid was gobsmacked after her friend. The bride asked her to pay a hefty fee to be a part of the bridal party, making the bridesmaids not want to participate in the wedding at all. So I don't know how this works anymore. How does this work? If you're asked to be in a wedding, don't you? Shouldn't you have to pay for your own stuff? I I'm not sure how that works.

Speaker 1: 5:04

The anonymous 24-year-old woman took to Reddit, in a since-deleted post, to detail her predicament, saying that she was beyond excited and honored to be a part of the special date to her friend. Then things took a turn. Well, what did you think it was going to do If you're asked to be a part of a wedding party? Do you think you're just going to do it for free? I don't know. Does the bride had? Does the bride have to pay for everything? I'm honestly asking, I don't know. Um, so a couple weeks after the proposal, megan sent me an email detailing the bridesmaid package. The woman wrote on reddit. People reported she attached a spreadsheet showing what I would need to pay for in order to in order to participate first. I think this, if at least she's telling you up front how much to expect to pay, it's not like she's gonna whammy it on you later. So the expense included a 500 for a dress that's kind of expensive for a dress, I think for bridesmaids, but I don't know. $300 for hair and makeup that's ridiculous. Can you not do your own makeup? $150 minimum for a bridal gift and $100 deposit for the bachelorette party for the luxury resort. So I mean, you're going into something like this. It's going to be expensive. I don't think the bride should bear the brunt of all of it. I mean, if you want to be a part of it, like I said, at least she's telling her up front what to expect.

Speaker 1: 6:32

All right, we're moving on to a feel-good story from the New York Post. Actually, and I am cheering this, this little girl, on I think I want to go follow her on TikTok. Trapped in the 80s, this 24 year old has big hair, vintage clothes and a Camaro and makes her living from a decade she never lived in. Her gig is totally rad. Like oh my gosh, a Staten Islander is making a living from her infatuation from the 1980s, despite never having lived in the decade herself. Content creator Violet Skye, who sports a teased up perm and bangs and even drives a teal Camaro, always dresses as if she were going back to the future Every moment of every day. It's just my lifestyle at this point. Skye, who is 24 years old, who has more than 324,000 TikTok followers, told the Post I wear at least one piece of acid-washed denim a day and I've been really into the big hair. She's super cute too. They have pictures of her on all this, so I say good for her If she's making money off of this doing it, and this is good, clean, fun. At least she's not on only fans since launching her instagram and tiktok account glitter wave 80s, so I am definitely going to go follow her.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Sky, who uses her first and middle names for her online persona, landed partnerships with multiple 80s icons bands like deaf leopard and journey tv shows like married with children, clothing labels such as s s you know, espri, espri, espri, you know what I'm talking about. And arcade classics like pac-man. Good for her. Everything I do to make money really relates to the 80s and in the some way she said now see, I couldn't do something like that because I'm old. They want somebody fresh and young like that to bring you back to the 80s. I love this idea. Good for her. I'm cheering her on when she is not creating social content, media media content.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Sky works at the thrift shop Flamingos Vintage Pound in Chelsea and also does 80s wardrobe consulting. Good for her, I love it. The former music industry major at SUNY Anyanta also hosts a radio show Good, she also hosts a radio show I gotta see if I can find that On Staten Island Station, maker Park Radio spinning vinyl records only. And it is also releasing an 80s album this year, aptly named the Sky's the Limit. Oh, my gosh, you guys need to go finish reading that. I love it. All right, but we need to move on because I'm running out of time. I need to have the question of the day. Let's see. Okay, since we're just going to keep it with the 80s.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Who was your favorite band from the 80s? I don't know what my favorite band is from the 80s. I was never into music back in my day Madonna. I liked Madonna, but that's not really a band I don't know. I loved MTV. Mtv opened a whole new world for me. I need to probably start some kind of blog series on MTV. Somebody do it, do you remember? From a little girl from Southern Ohio and rural Southern Ohio. Mtv opened a whole new world to me and I'm sure for others too, when being a teenager in the eighties. Anyway, I've run over. Okay, I've got to go. I hope y'all have a great day.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Go read my blog at Americanistcom. Sign up for the newsletter where I recap the whole week that I've written, so you don't have to go to the blog every day and just get delivered to your inbox. Nice, easy, convenient. I would really appreciate some participation over there. Thank you, mr Sean's, for commenting. I would like, you know, for people to share my posts. Comment on my post. Get some engagement going on over there. All right, I'm rambling, got to go. Love y'all. Thanks for listening. Bye.