Nerds and Tattoos (Hour 1)

Hey, welcome to Nightlight!

Ladies and gentlemen, great to have you with me.

It is, boy, there's no excuse not to be in a good mood today.

I mean, it is Friday.

We're finally seeing the sun.

This is the first day I walked from the parking garage to the studio and did not get rained on, I think all week.

So summer appears to officially be here by way of the summer solstice and also the temperatures and the sunlight.

And it is a beautiful day.

At least here in Northeast Wisconsin.

I hope you're having a great day wherever you are.

I hope the weather is beautiful.

And if not, we'll bring some sunshine one way or the other, folks.

We're gonna light it up tonight and it's great to have you with me sitting in for the K-Man once again is the wonderfully talented, award-winning social media expert and radio producer Amanda Nimmer.

Who's also gonna be like, hey Pete, silence your phone.

Did it go off again?

You did.

Don't you think that makes me sound busy though?

I don't know.

I hear that sometimes when I listen to the radio, it doesn't bother me.

But it bothers you.

They're so popular, wow.

Exactly.

Stars, they're just like us.

This guy can't even turn it off when he's on the radio.

So, you've been on the air, is that what you used to do?

Were you always good about silencing your phone?

Oh yeah, no, definitely had to, because my text tone is obnoxious.

What is it?

You're gonna call me a nerd again.

Well, we're talking about nerds tonight, so.

It is, so if anyone's ever played Legend of Zelda.

It

is the little fairy Navi going, hey, listen.

That's a word, that's like dialogue from the game.

Hey, listen.

Oh, funny.

You know, it's funny you mentioned that game because I introduced films on PBS Wisconsin.

I introduced all the POV and independent lens films.

And there's one, I can't remember the name of the film, but it's about, and I think they under, they transformed, they underwent,

They had a gender identity issue.

And I think the record was set.

I have to remember the name.

It was someone from Wisconsin set the record for the Legend of Zelda.

Really?

Yeah.

Is there another name, like a sub name in there?

Well,

I

mean, there's like a variety of different games.

There's Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time.

That's it.

Ocarina of Time.

Ocarina of Time.

She set the record and then...

Then she came out as trans and people turned on her.

She had all these followers.

She didn't like 18 minutes or something like that.

It was something insane.

And so, but now she's got her followers back and she, I don't know, it's a phenomenal story.

I would recommend checking it out.

I'm gonna

have to look that up.

I'm very intrigued because I mean, I've played that game all through my childhood and I'll replay

it once in a

while.

I'll find out the title and give it to you.

I'll look

for it.

It's really good.

Yeah, you won't be, you won't be disappointed.

If you are disappointed, I will pay for your viewing.

It's on PBS, so it's free, but I'll still pay for it.

Hey, we got a great chart.

Amanda's sitting in, we're talking about, we got a lot, we got great guests tonight.

There's a big tattoo festival here in Green Bay this weekend, the Green Bay Tattoo Festival.

Joining us from the festival...

is Quinn Hurley, who will be here over the phone at 6.35.

We're going to find out more about this really cool thing.

If you are in Green Bay or northeast Wisconsin and you are into tattoos, this sounds like the place.

Quinn is driving here from Fort Wayne just to be part of this.

It's a spectacle.

There's like 3,000 participants, people visiting, attendees if you will, 200 artists, 30 vendors.

And it lasts for three days.

Do you have a tattoo?

Yeah, I got three of

them.

So two of them, my late husband drew.

He

used to be a

fine line artist.

So he has created flash sheets and whatnot for tattoo studios in the past.

Wow.

Is that what he did for a living?

No.

I mean, well, he never really made money off his art.

He was

one of those

people who had the talent.

But the second he had a commission, he just had no motivation whatsoever.

Like I just got nothing.

It's kinda nice that you have a tattoo to remember and buy those.

It's very cool.

Yeah,

no, I got two of them.

We have like five other people who have his work on them

too.

He was good.

Nice.

Well, feel free to jump in.

You can ask Quinn a question too.

You probably know more about tattoos than me.

I almost got a tattoo.

You don't have any?

I don't have any.

And, you know, like I missed my chance.

Cause like in 1990, my, it was like 1992, my now wife, then girlfriend said, should we get tattoos?

And it kind of appealed to me, but then I saw one day like my pharmacist had one, and I'm like, they're just not cool anymore.

You don't know what that pharmacist does on his off time.

But

still, you got the white coat on and the little steps you walk up into into the pills, it just didn't seem cool to me.

I'm like, if it was still just like bikers and criminals and rock and rollers, yeah, maybe I would do it, but I just thought, I don't know.

Well, I mean, nowadays there's so many different styles.

So what you're thinking of is like, and I'm pretty sure Quinn can correct me if I'm wrong, is like the old Americana kind of style

where

it's just like old school.

And now

everyone's got like the fine line, the little fairy ones, the watercolor ones.

They're doing cross stitching kind of ones.

Like, I mean, Tattoo World has erupted.

They always say too.

Glow in the dark ones.

Glow in the dark tattoos.

Yes, with UV light.

That's not good if you're...

on a covert op or something.

I mean, I would hope they don't get it.

I would think they wouldn't.

I would get one inside of my arm if I were still to get one because, you know, I was kind of in good shape when I was younger.

I thought, oh, get something around my arm.

But then it's like, no, because when you get older, it just looks bad.

And where else?

I'm not going to, you know, get one in any precarious place.

So maybe the inside of my arm if I were still to get one.

But I don't know what I get.

Names of my kids, my wife.

I don't know.

What do you do?

I mean, I know my next one is going to be probably, and again, I'm going to sound like a nerd.

I'm going to get the Pisces astrology sign.

Oh, because it's your sign?

No, God, no.

It's my kids.

Oh, all right.

My

kids are 10 days apart, both are Pisces.

And I was like, oh, that's better than just names.

Oh, that's great.

Yeah.

I'm an Aries, but I think that would be, I'm not really into that.

If my, if my horoscope is right there in front of me and it pops up, I'll read it, but I'm not like pursuing it, you know?

So I probably wouldn't do an astrological sign.

I don't know.

I don't know what I would do.

My last one was a little ghost squirrel.

Just for funsies.

That's very subtle too.

I like that.

Just for funsies.

Maybe we'll do that.

Maybe that'll be our question on Monday.

What tattoo would you get?

Because I don't.

I don't know.

I don't know what I would do.

Maybe Quinn will have some suggestions.

Quinn will be here at 6.35.

We're going to delve into Tattoo's Green Bay Tattoo Festival this weekend, the 20th today through the 22nd.

That'll be fun.

And then this is exciting.

At 7.05, I think it was Aaron Carano at the company meeting this week, talked about Muskie Fest up in Hayward.

So I thought, well, that's kind of cool.

Muskies used to freak me out.

I used to come up here to Wisconsin on vacation, and I remember thinking, or my relatives saying, oh, there's this big muskie in the Three Lakes area that was eating all the fish.

And all these fishermen were trying to catch this big muskie.

And the fish would have bite marks on them, and they thought it was this muskie, and I freaked out.

I mean, I thought they get like, what, four to six feet long or something like that?

So I was like, they've always kind of scared me a little bit.

And they do bite, apparently, under the right circumstances.

So, we'll talk to our guest, Chris Ruckdashel.

We'll be here at 7.05.

He's going to tell us all about Muskie Fest in Hayward.

Isn't that the town where they have the big muskie on the outer limits of the town, I think?

Well, it's one of our stations, actually, and it's called Muskie.

Yeah, of course.

Yes.

Okay, so Chris will be here and now we're gonna talk about musky fests.

That'll be fun But we're also gonna talk about this cult classic of this movie called bloody hook that they show every year.

It's an annual thing It's a cult classic.

It's from 1987 and the caption is or the synopsis is during a local fishing contest people are being violently dragged into the lake and killed by a giant fish hook

Not even a giant fish.

A giant fish hook.

Is this rubber 2.0?

I've never heard of it.

But I guess, I don't know if they shot it up there.

We'll get some more information from Chris.

This will be fun.

I'm excited to talk to him about Muskie Fest and Bloody Hook.

And then, ladies and gentlemen, this is very exciting.

Back in the saddle, Terry Barr is finally done with her vacation.

It was almost a month long.

And I'm listening, she deserves a vacation, but a month?

I mean, all I'm hearing is jealousy right now.

I'm jealous.

I want to beat Terry Barr sometimes, so I'm a little jealous.

I mean, you

ever go through her social media and you're like, man, this girl has lived.

Oh man, she's like, even on vacation, she's posting stuff.

She just does not take a break.

So she missed three Fridays and it was awesome because Rocker filled in, he was phenomenal.

It was great to talk to Rocker about music.

And now Terry is back tonight, our original bar band Friday night co-host named after, of course, said co-host Terry Barr.

So that's exciting.

She's got two great bands we're gonna talk about tonight.

And I think it's time we shouldn't put this off any longer.

Today,

is McLoven's birthday.

You've seen Superbad, right?

Oh,

definitely.

I mean, one of the all-time, you know, one of the greatest characters in teen comedy history slash nerd is McLoven.

So that inspired our question of the night.

Oh, yeah,

I forgot.

I am not Conrad!

No worries, we don't even have to do it.

I don't want to make your life difficult, Amanda.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, there we go.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Okay, in honor of McLovin's birthday, who is your favorite nerd?

Could be from TV, films.

If you know someone in your real life that's a nerd, tell us why.

That's fine too.

There are no right or wrong answers, folks.

There are only your answers.

Text them in, and I will read them on the radio.

855-752-4842-8557.

Civic, phone lines, text lines are open.

You can also text us on the app.

Very easy to use.

If you don't have it, shame on you.

It's outstanding.

And it's a great way to listen to Nightlight and all your favorite civic media shows.

And you can also text in on the stream and leave a comment on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.

Twix.

And if you're there, if you're on any of these outlets, give us a like or a follow while you're there.

It's always fun to get likes and follows.

What's more important, a like or a follow?

Depends what your goal is.

More often than not, you want the follow because you're more than likely to get the content

out there.

But the likes help push to get more followers.

We need a little bump, I think, in both.

It's a little

hand-in-hand

action.

This is your area.

This is your wheelhouse.

And I know you've encouraged us to ask for likes or files.

I'm not that guy.

I have trouble doing that.

I've gotten better at it because no one else is going to do it.

So I want people to listen to the show.

So that's great.

If you're wondering

where, by the way, you can go on Facebook.

Yeah.

Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

with Peach Waba, exactly.

That's where the

main stuff is.

Our question is on there typically every day.

Did we get good responses today for the question?

I didn't even check.

I saw a few.

I saw a few of them popped up.

Today is the summer solstice, which is exciting.

But you know, it's exciting, but it's kind of like Christmas Day.

The lead up to it is more fun when it's starting to get light out longer.

Now that it's here, I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but it's like all downhill till December 21st.

till the winter solstice.

It's all these damn solstices.

So we get extra daylight tonight, that's fun.

I have to ask you if you can tell me in a minute.

Fat day.

You mentioned this last night.

Is that like a cheat day or

what?

Oh, so fat weekend.

Fat weekend.

We do it about like, should I wait?

Should I wait so I

can go into detail?

Yeah, wait.

I'll tell you this before we go to the break.

I had that thing where I drove here tonight and I look and there's a cop there.

And I'm not a speeder, but for some reason I was going 83.

I didn't even notice it.

And I'm like, okay, this is it.

I'm going to be late.

You know, I always use, like I didn't leave as much time today as I usually do.

I was going to get here about 20 minutes before, but he didn't pull me over.

Tipping my hat to law enforcement.

I'm a big fan.

All right, we are coming back.

Amanda's going to tell us what fat weekend is.

And we're going to hear from McLovin and read your texts.

This is Peach Wabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Stand.

Well, I guess the question is, what defines a nerd?

Welcome back, folks.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

I am Pete Schwabba.

Our question of the night is, who was your favorite nerd?

It is McLoven's birthday.

Christopher Mince Plus, I think is this, I don't even know how to pronounce it.

I

think that's

right.

Is that right?

Yeah.

It's his birthday today.

So he was McLoven and Superbad, which Superbad to me, like the first 45 minutes is one of the funniest movies that I've ever seen.

I think it kind of goes a little bit south after that, but a really good movie.

and it's very funny stuff.

I would say probably my favorite nerd, probably Milhouse from The Simpsons.

Do you have one?

It's hard.

Yeah.

I mean,

I'm

in the nerd world.

It's hard to pick just one.

Just pick a friend of yours then, Amanda.

It doesn't matter.

It's easy for you.

That's funny.

So that is our question of the day.

Do we have the McLovin clip?

Maybe we should get people in the mood to respond to this, because we're having some fun here on a Friday night.

This is McLovin on his birthday, ladies and

gentlemen.

Fogel, where have you been, man?

You almost gave me a f***ing heart attack.

Let me see it.

You f***ing out of work.

No, no, man.

I got it.

It's flawless.

Check it.

Why?

All right, that's good.

Hard to trace, I guess.

Wait, you changed your name to McLovin?

McLovin?

What kind of a stupid name is that, Fogel?

What are you trying to be an Irish R&B singer?

Oh, they let you pick any name you want.

What do you get down there?

And

you landed on McLovin.

Yeah, I was between that and Muhammad.

Why the f*** would it be between that and Muhammad?

Why don't you just pick a common name like a normal person?

Muhammad is the most commonly used name on Earth.

Read a f***ing book for once.

Fogle,

have you ever actually met any one named Muhammad?

Have you actually ever met any one named McLovin?

No, that's why you picked a

dumb f***ing name.

F*** you.

Give me that.

Alright.

You look like a future pedophile in this picture.

Number one.

Number two, it doesn't even have a first name.

It just says McLovin.

What?

One name?

One name?

But who are you sealed?

Fogel?

Zagy says you're 25 years old.

Why wouldn't you just

put 21, man?

Seth, Seth, Seth.

Listen up, a** face.

Every day, hundreds of kids go into the liquor store with their fake IDs, and every single one says they're 21.

How many 21-year-olds do you think they're on this town?

It's called a** strategy, all right?

Let's

stay calm, okay?

Let's not lose our heads.

It's a fine ID.

It's gonna work.

It's passable, okay?

This isn't terrible.

I mean, it's up to you, Fogle.

This guy's either gonna think, here's another kid with a fake ID, or here's McLovin, the 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor.

Okay?

So what's it gonna be?

I am McLovin.

That's so great.

He should probably be up higher on my list, but I've only seen that movie once.

I just remember laughing hysterically.

All right, so we're going to read the social media text first.

Monica Hale says, Bill Nye, the science guy, especially the episode where he talked about naked mole rats and comedian Don McMillan, who uses a PowerPoint presentation in his stand-up act to make math and engineering funny.

Wow, Monica, that is a great pull.

Don McMillan has been around forever, too.

He was doing stand-up, I think, 10 years before I started, maybe even more.

He's got to be in his 70s now.

That's a great text.

Thank you, Monica Conrad Krieger the kid the kid Conrad the K-man con Says you may know him as McLovin, but I know him as Augie Farks.

Oh, that's a good movie too.

What's that?

What's a Paul Rudd movie?

It's

a Paul Rudd movie where he has to like kind of like big brother big sister this kid

And

he's like into larping live-action role-playing

Is it a funny movie?

Oh, it's never seen it's

good

Sarah Jean on the social media.

Oh, that's funny Sarah She says Pete Schwabba is my favorite nerd.

She's not the only one Tom from New Berlin said you Pete was that was on the text line,

right?

Yeah, I know and I and that's fine.

I don't I Mean, I know I'm not the coolest guy in the world But you can you have categories of nerds too like people say I'm a movie nerd

I'm a golf nerd.

Sports nerd.

Sports nerd.

I'm a girl nerd.

I love girls.

It doesn't work that

way, no.

Sorry.

Yes, Tom from New Berlin also voted for me as his favorite nerd.

Thank you, buddy.

Great to hear from you, Tom.

Dan from Wausau says, Harold from Red Green Show.

I don't know that.

Sorry, Dan, I don't know that show.

Please elaborate, though.

I'd love to know what it is and check it out.

Unless you met the Tom Green show?

I don't know.

One that might count could be Ms.

Frizzle.

Who's that?

From the Magic School Bus?

Oh, I don't know that.

Oh my gosh.

See, I don't, I,

maybe I am a nerd because I don't even get these references.

Or I'm just lame.

What's worse?

I don't know.

Carl Sagan is out of this world nerd orific.

That's Tyler from Wisconsin Rapids.

I was gonna say Bill Gates, but wasn't there rumors, weren't there rumors that he was like on the Epstein list?

But then people said he just was like an assault, like the problem is that list, if you're on it, even if you didn't do anything, people will think you're on it.

I can't imagine Bill Gates would do something like that.

But he's a good nerd too.

Cheryl from Waukesha, just texted in her name, Cheryl from Waukesha.

Did I miss something?

I don't wanna miss anything, man.

Let me know if I missed something.

Who else we got here?

Anna from Madison says, hi Pete and Amanda.

My favorite nerd is Ted, Anthony Michael Hall and 16 candles.

That is a great one.

Makes you think of Ducky though from Pretty in Pink.

Pretty in Pink, yeah.

John Hughes is some good nerds.

And you got Cameron Fry is a good nerd from Ferris Bueller.

Carrie from Tosa says, Lane Meyer, John Cusack and Better Off Dead, another great one.

But yeah, 16 candles I think.

Anthony Michael Hall was like a nerd in everything in the 80s.

He was tight-casted.

Molly Ringwell's underpants or something like that.

Oh,

yeah.

No, he was definitely tight-casted.

I think until he hit, like, you know, got out of that lanky awkward phase, kind of bulked up a bit, or was it when he did that, like, he almost died and he could, like, see the future show, whatever was,

see dead people.

What is that?

That was a remake of Christopher Walkenfilm, and now I'm blanking.

My mom loved

that show.

Something Horizon.

No.

We'll find out.

We'll Google it.

We'll go to the Google.

And Dan from Wausau gives us some clarification.

The Red Green show featured a long list of characters over its 15 seasons.

There are some of the main cast members and characters they played.

Main characters, Steve Smith played Red Green, the ledge leader, Patrick McKenna, Red's nerdy nephew, Rick Green, played by Bill Smith, Red's friend and star of Adventures with.

All right, we're coming right back.

And we're talking tattoos.

It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I remember

going up there, you know, just to see, just to look.

And I sort of walked in all these stunt guys with pulleys.

Everyone was like, I thought it was a bed.

You guys

got these

labeled poorly silent.

Everyone was really concentrating on it.

And I kind of crept towards the end.

And I looked at it and Tom was just hanging there with it.

What about it?

It's a bumper.

We're going to just fade out.

I'm throwing Conrad under the bus for that one.

Hey, welcome back tonight, light.

I am Pete Schwabbo.

We're having fun here on a Friday night.

Conrad is off tonight.

Well, he was on today.

He worked with the guys in the morning, Mino and the mayor, and he had to catch up on sleep because they worked him to the bone.

So Amanda Nimmer is filling in.

And we're all doing this because Todd Michaels is on vacation, a well-deserved.

vacation for our fearless leader here in northeast Wisconsin.

I'm going to Madison Monday and Tuesday and doing my show from there, working with our fine producers in Madison, which is always fun too.

And I hope Todd is enjoying his vacation.

And at the very least, we get to work together, man.

That's kind of fun.

Yeah,

it's nice being able to- Do you like working with me?

I do.

It's a nice

change of pace.

Because, you know, there's so many people in the morning and there's so less people today.

But let me ask you this.

Do you go, do you go, well, working with Pete will be a nice change of pace?

Or do you go, I want to work with Pete.

He's a talented guy.

Oh, you took

way

too.

You know what?

We're going to move on.

I've had enough of your nonsense.

All right.

We're going to keep moving this show along, folks.

Our question of the night is, who's your favorite nerd?

It is McLovin's birthday.

And we're sort of celebrating that with our question of the night.

We've got some good responses so far.

And Dan from Wausau said, Tom Green is great, but not a nerd, just insane.

Okay.

He's an insane nerd.

He's definitely on the special spectrum.

He's fun.

You want to know who another good one is?

Al

Jankovic.

Oh yeah, weird Al.

Get yourself an egg and beat it, eat it.

Al, Al, weird Al Jankovic.

And Barb from Wausau says, Pee Wee Herman, that's a great one too.

He's kind of not really a nerd though, because Paul Hermanns is pretty cool.

But when he's pee-wee, he's a nerd.

Oh, yeah.

But I totally accept that.

You could say that probably about any of the movie nerds, certainly.

So let us know what you're thinking, folks.

Who is your favorite nerd?

That is our question of the night here at Nightlight.

We're going to move on here and get to some really cool talk.

I love when I have people on the show who know more about things than me.

And honestly,

These people are not hard to find.

My interests are not that varied, so I don't know a lot about tattoos, but I'm about to welcome someone to the show, Quinn Hurley, who does know a lot about tattoos.

And this is just the person to talk to because there's a huge tattoo festival in Green Bay as we speak.

It starts today and goes through Sunday.

It is my pleasure to welcome Quinn Hurley tonight.

Hey, Quinn.

Hey, Pete, thank you so much for having me on.

Hey, it's fun to have you here, and I'm glad we got in touch.

You tell me where you are right now, because I assume you're in Green Bay, but when we talked the other day, you were making your way up the coast, shall I say in Wisconsin, to Green Bay for Fort Wayne, right?

Yeah.

Fort Wayne, Indiana is where we're from, which is the greatest city on earth.

I'm going to say Green Bay is a very close second to everybody listening out there, but Fort Wayne is where everyone I love lives.

So I, you know, gotta say it's Fort Wayne, but we live in Fort Wayne and we're, we're in Green Bay now with the KI convention center downtown.

you are literally 300 feet from us.

So I'm, uh, I'm excited for you.

That's a great space.

And I'm sure the convention is, I know the basics, Quinn, like 3000 attendees is what they're expecting.

Like 200 artists, 30 or 40 vendors.

What else can you tell us about this, uh, this really cool event?

Yeah, so you know we do we have you know we have a bunch of artists and vendors and You know it's making tattoos.

That's what we're here to do You know there's not a sideshow here a lot of other tattoo festivals might have some stuff like that But we're here to celebrate tattooing the culture the art of it and to just make great tattoos on the people of Green Bay in the surrounding areas

We got a lot of local artists that are here that are incredible, good friends of ours, and then a bunch of people that traveled in from all corners of the country to be here in Green Bay this weekend.

Wow.

Is this like a destination?

Are there a lot of these tattoo festivals throughout the year in different cities, or is this one of the bigger ones?

Where's the Green Bay one rank?

So, yeah, we do 13 of these all across the country.

And, you know, we're in cities, you know, the size of Green Bay and the size of Fort Wayne, Indiana, all the way up to, like, Dallas, Texas, Las Vegas, Nevada, you know.

So we're kind of all over in all those different populations.

So Green Bay is, you know, one of the smaller populations.

However, the people of Green Bay show out for things, and that's where we like to be.

That's where we like to be, the places where people are passionate about the culture that they're around.

And Green Bay was the perfect fit for it.

We've done other festivals in Wisconsin, both in Madison and Milwaukee.

And those were great because people in Wisconsin love tattoos and they're about it.

And so we like to go where those people are.

And so even though it might be a smaller city, so to speak,

I know all the artists in there are really happy right now because they are cranking out a bunch of tattoos.

So that's really what it is.

People go there to get tattoos, not just discuss tattoos or be immersed in the culture, or maybe that's part of the two, but they're actually applying tattoos.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

We've got all those artists, you know, all those 150, 200 artists in there making tattoos all weekend on people that are listening right now.

You know, if the people listening right now come tomorrow, they can get a tattoo or come later tonight.

We're up until 10.

You know, yeah, come in.

You can check out the art, all the portfolios and the flash and the pre-drawn designs.

and say, hey, I love that, or I love that style and talk to the artist and get a tattoo right then and there, or make an appointment for the next day and come back and get it there.

That's so great.

So you keep saying, we, Quinn, what is your connection exactly?

Are you one of the directors or are you one of the founders?

Tell the listeners a little bit about what your connection to this event is.

Yeah, so I'm the director of operations.

That's my official title that my bosses let me give myself.

My bosses have owned a tattoo shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana that's been around for over 20 years.

And then they started the Explorer tattoo conference, which is the world's biggest educational conference for tattooing.

So at those events, other tattooers would come and listen to really well-known, prestigious tattoo artists.

and learn from them, right?

And so when we had hundreds of those artists from all around, they would talk about tattoo festivals and they would say, this is what we like.

This is what we don't like.

These are the changes that we wish were made.

And we had enough of a connection to people all around that we said, well, if somebody needs to make a change or just add something new into the culture, we can talk about how that should happen or we can do it.

And so we did it and we did our first one in our hometown of Fort Wayne did one that year.

The next year we did four.

The next year after that we did 12 and we're doing 13 this year and looking for more in 2026.

But it's all about meeting those people.

We come here, we meet people that we hadn't met before, and they say, hey, have you thought about doing a show where I live?

And we say, tell me about it.

Why should we house the culture out there?

How many tattoo shops are out there?

And they tell us those things.

And we say, OK, yeah, that sounds great.

And that's basically what happened with Green Bay, is that we did our shows in Wisconsin last year.

We met artists from Green Bay.

We knew our friends here.

And they said, hey, these shows have gone pretty well.

Have you thought about Green Bay?

And we said, we have, but you put your stamp on it, putting your name to it, that means a lot.

And so we looked into it, and it's been absolutely wonderful.

The city is great.

The KI Convention Center is incredible.

So everybody here is really happy.

And I hope everybody listening here comes to check it out and really celebrate with

us.

Oh, I didn't realize you guys were right across the street.

That explains parking today.

Well,

yeah, and all the people walking by

out here with tattoos.

It's always fun when we come into town and you all of a sudden see downtown littered with people covered in tattoos.

People go, there's something going on.

I

do have a question for you.

So you say there's like 150 to about 200 artists.

Now, for each convention, is it just like in that state or are artists traveling from other states?

to come to this festival.

Oh yeah, they're traveling from all over.

I don't think we have anybody... I don't think we have...

any international artists right now, most of the shows that we do, we do have an international artist, but here we have a lot of people from all across the country.

It is mostly like Midwest, local people that can drive in, but there's a bunch of people that have flown in, packed up all their tattoo gear and come out to Green Bay.

Wow, that is really cool.

We have a, after you're on Quinn,

Chris Ruckdashle is on from Muskie Fest in Hayward was constant and one of the one of our followers on Twitter said how about a tattoo of a muskie?

So I'm sure you've seen all kinds of tattoos What did you when did you get into this?

When did you realize you wanted this to kind of be your livelihood or your your main side hustle so to speak?

It was It was I started

I started managing that tattoo shop that my bosses ran, and I was literally waiting tables in a bar.

I went to college for creative writing, which means I was working in a bar, and then I'd been getting tattoos from the shop at my now boss's own.

since I was 18, and they were hiring a manager.

And I said, yeah, that sounds cool.

I love the people there.

You know, I like tattoos a whole lot.

And so I started managing that shop.

And then they said, hey, we've got a big, crazy idea.

And I said, cool, yeah, I'm in, let's go.

And so I kind of transitioned into that.

My bosses have been in it.

They've been around the culture in the scene forever.

And they've been pretty important to it.

So I'm lucky to know them.

And I'm thankful and blessed to be able to be in their lives and that they have pulled me up with them.

And so yeah, it was never something as a little kid that I was like, I want to be in tattoos.

I can't draw worth a darn at all.

So it's never an option for me to be a tattoo artist, but I do love art.

You know, obviously went into school for creative writing.

I like the arts and this is, this is like, you know, it's a growing one.

It's something that was seen as taboo for, you know, so long.

Uh, the last state to make tattooing legal was Oklahoma and that was 2006, which wasn't that long ago.

Yeah.

2006, Oklahoma made tattooing legal.

So, you know, it's still, there is still kind of a thought around it, whether it's taboo or not, you know, there is still a thought around it, but people are starting to really, really understand in the past.

you know, 10 years or so, how it's not only acceptable, but it's something to promote and to celebrate.

My guest is Quinn Hurley.

He's the Director of Operations for the Green Bay Tattoo Festival, which is happening right now, ladies and gentlemen, at the KI Convention Center right around the corner here from WGBW.

It goes through Sunday.

3,000 attendees are expected, 200 artists, 30 vendors.

So I got to tell you, Quinn, this...

Tattoo parlors first started opening up.

I'm like, well, that'll never last.

I'm like, I just didn't think there'd be a market for that.

And wow, was I wrong?

I think I'm the only person in America without a tattoo, and I'm open to it.

I'm actually like, maybe I would do one.

Can you explain the boom?

How did that happen and why?

I

do think a part of it was just people realizing that it wasn't.

It wasn't all just skulls and blasphemy.

Once people started getting things that started to mean more to them and be sentimental and all that kind of thing, they realized, oh, I could get that flower.

I could get that name.

I could get those dates.

And once one person does it, everybody's

fear of influence is much greater than they give themselves credit for.

Anybody can be a taste maker in their own life and inspire and encourage other people to do things.

I think that's what happened with tattoo.

It grew very organically.

Obviously with the tattoo shows that happened, you know, like Ink Masters, that really set it off because now you're watching it on TV and now it's cool and it's not just for rock stars.

It's, you know, you're seeing the people that are getting tattooed and they're like, oh, that looks like I do.

And they're getting this big tattoo.

And so that really made it, you know, a lot more marketable.

and made it so everybody kind of felt more comfortable in getting what they want to get.

That's so great.

My guest is Quinn Hurley.

We'll have a couple minutes left with Quinn right after this very short break.

We're talking tattoos.

He's right around the corner at the Green Bay Tattoo Festival.

Folks, our question of the night is, who is your favorite nerd?

It is McLovin's birthday.

And on the stream, Daniel says, favorite nerd, George McFly from Back to the Future.

Welcome back.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

I am Pete Schwabba.

It's a Bar Band Friday Night.

Terry Barr will be here with new music at 7.35.

An amazing conversation welcoming Terry back from vacation tonight.

Chris, I keep, Ruck-dash-all.

He's got a tough last name to say.

I'm gonna have to get better at that.

He's here at 705 to talk Muskie Fest, and he was referred by Mark Lundin, our pal at the Muskie 101.1 in Hayward.

Right now we have a couple more minutes with our current guest, Quinn Hurley, who is in town from Fort Wayne, Indiana for Tattoo Fest.

He's the director of operations.

He started this whole crazy thing.

Chris, are there options for needle

haters?

there might be somebody in there with temporary tattoos that somebody could put on themselves.

But more so than that, we have a lot of great vendors in there.

People sell on oddities.

You know, every tattoo artist in there's got art and prints that people can buy.

So, you know, there's definitely, if you're not wanting to get a tattoo, but you still love the art and you still love the culture, you can come in, you can support, you can check out their shirts and their merchant, you know, the vendors that are selling oddities and all that stuff.

So there definitely is something for everyone.

That's excellent.

And you just said something interesting.

Like if people already have tattoos or don't want more, or maybe they just want to hang out because it sounds like a fun group of people, like it goes till 10 p.m.

Are there after parties or anything?

What do you guys do after hours?

No, not tonight.

Tomorrow actually our friends at Katana tattoo, which is just across the river here.

They're having an art night and that's actually, that's going on tomorrow.

I believe, you know, five to 11 PM.

So a lot of us are going to go over there tomorrow night and support them.

They have art that they've done the artists there as well as a bunch of other tattoo artists and other mixed media artists have sent in to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

I think it's a 15th anniversary.

So that's

what we're doing tomorrow night.

No other after parties tonight, but I did hear about a place called Player 2 Arcade Bar.

It's right down the road.

And I love Gallagher, so I'm going to go try and find Gallagher over there.

Oh, that's

a great game.

All right, Quinn, I got to ask you, what is your favorite tattoo that you have?

How many do you have, first of all, and what's your

favorite?

I think I have 17.

I think that was the last time I counted and they're not, yeah, they're not all big, you know, some of them are kind of small, but my favorite, my favorite tattoo is a flower I have on my leg cause one of my best friends did it.

I didn't know them very well when we started this whole thing.

I got tattooed by him and now we spend fourth of July together and he's one of my best friends in this whole entire world.

So I get to look at that tattoo and think of my buddy Freddie Brown.

That's fantastic.

And last thing for you, what is the atmosphere like there?

Is it competitive?

I know you have a competition.

I don't even know how you'd begin to judge that because it seems like it would be really subjective.

But what is the atmosphere like?

Is there competition between tattoo artists or is there like a camaraderie?

It is a camaraderie.

I think there's a healthy competition.

We do have those competitions, both for fresh tattoos and then healed ones as well.

Um, and obviously everybody wants to win a trophy.

They want their tattoo to be put up on the pedestal.

Um, but you know, it's never, uh, oh, you did it.

Not, you know, I'm mad at you.

It's very much like, wow, that was a great tattoo.

Yeah.

That's great.

I need to up my game a little more.

So it's very much camaraderie around here.

Nobody's, you know, fighting or chomping at the bits of each other.

Everybody's here to build each other up, learn, and grow.

Well, I hope it was worth the drive, my friend.

Have a great festival, and keep up the great work, and don't be a stranger.

We'd love to talk again sometime.

Absolutely, Pete.

I can't thank you enough for having me.

My pleasure.

Have fun, Quinn.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

All right, so check out Green Bay Tattoo Festival.

You get a mosey over there?

I wish, but...

No, I got nothing for that right now.

One thing I do

know is I'm curious, like, how many tattoos do they get done in a day?

Because some tattoos can take up to like 15 hours of sitting to do.

Yeah, I honestly I was being very serious when I said that I didn't think that would be ever be something where people could make a living at it But there are there are really respected like it's an art form.

I mean, it's it's incredible You didn't tell us about fat weekend

that weekend.

What is that?

Okay, so fat weekend we do it once maybe twice a year depending

on how

bad the year is twice this year And basically it's an entire weekend where you just don't give a flying F

of what you eat.

You can just indulge.

If you want to eat dips and chips all day, go for it.

It is your fat weekend.

No repercussions

unless you have tummy issues.

That sounds like my every weekend, basically.

So is it like a therapeutic kind of a guilty pleasure eating thing?

Yeah, basically.

I mean, everywhere you go, everyone's talking about, oh, you got to eat like this.

You got to eat

like

that.

And I mean,

Some people have weight issues.

I clearly have a weight issue.

So you try so hard to eat healthy, and then it can get exhausting.

And sometimes you just need a break.

And you're like,

script that weekend.

I'm doing it.

I don't care.

Guilt free.

Doing it.

For me personally, right now, I have to change my diet because of medical reasons.

So for me, it's

a big goodbye to some

of

my.

Favorite, favorite foods like popcorn.

It's so funny.

You're saying that because I used to say, I used to call it my farewell to bad eating.

Like I'm really going nuts this weekend.

And then I'm going to, and then never, and then it extends another week.

But here's what sucks about getting older is, you know, even if you eat healthy.

That doesn't really matter.

You still have to count your calories, which they don't tell you when you're young.

It's a big shell game.

It sucks.

Oh my god, no.

They change things every year.

It's like, oh, this is healthy fat.

This is great for

you

next year.

I can't believe you've been eating this.

You are making yourself sick.

What?

Exactly.

It's

impossible to keep up.

Be a vegan.

No, be a vegetarian.

No, now eat keto.

Now eat protein.

It's like, well, never

be a vegan.

Like, don't give up cheese.

I'm not a big cheese dude.

I eat it sometimes, but the whole idea of it, I find a little gross.

How they make it.

You're in the wrong state, my friend.

Well, listen, I say that, but I do eat cheese and I have a soft spot.

I love blue cheese on a salad with balsamic or a occasional cheeseburger.

I'm not gonna sit here and toot my horn.

I will say, I thought this was funny.

Today, I saw an old friend and I went, I'm kind of a hugger, you know?

You know, and I went in for a hug, and I wasn't really tight with him, but I was happy to see him.

And mid-hug, as I'm going in, I realize he is not a hugger.

And his whole body stiffened up.

Like, I think he thought I was going to, like, ask him out or something.

I'm like, dude, I'm just giving you a hug.

I haven't seen you in forever.

You ever done that?

It's a very horrible feeling.

No, because

I

will never initiate a hug.

I apologize.

Unless it's someone I'm very intimate with.

You

don't

like you don't like to shake hands.

I don't like to give hugs.

All right.

We're coming right back We're gonna talk musky fest after intermission is peach boba night

and wgbw.fm.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Waba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who travels so he can pretend he's on the lam, Peach Waba.

That's me.

Welcome back to Night Light, folks.

We are kicking off Act 2 here.

Great to have you with me on this Friday night.

It is the longest day of summer, or of the year, I should say.

It is the first official day of summer.

And the first time, I think, we've seen the sun in Northeast Wisconsin.

And we didn't even see it all day, which is kind of rainy earlier today, too.

But it's a gorgeous night outside.

Perfect night to sit inside and listen to the radio.

Pull the family around.

get that as pipe and slippers and let's let's let's listen to some do people still do that a man of these

yeah sure other families

I that's how I want this show to be so exciting and so

insightful that people do that again.

They gather around the radio.

If you missed the first hour, you missed a lot of fun.

We had a great talk about tattoos at 635 with our pal, Quinn Hurley, who is the director of operations.

That is happening all weekend here in Green Bay Tattoo Festival over here at the KI Convention Center.

We talked about, oh, we gave our question of the night, which is who is your favorite nerd?

We're celebrating Micka Loven's birthday.

McLovin, of course, is a character from the film, Superbad.

And Christopher Minceplos turns, I think it was 35 today, so he played McLovin.

We were celebrating.

Really?

McLovin, yeah, 35.

I know, do you believe that?

I'm gonna be 35 at the end of the month.

I did not know we were the same age.

You guys, listen, you could have gone to prom together if...

If I would have went to prom,

yeah.

I don't know, maybe he hates prom too.

I don't know, but it's great to be on the radio talking about the things we love, folks.

Movies.

comedy, TV, music, and all kinds of fun stuff happening in Wisconsin.

And in addition to a really cool tattoo festival, if you live in the Hayward area, or if you want a road trip, there's a really, really cool event going on there this weekend as well.

And I'm just here, I'm the messenger, so I'm gonna bring in someone who really knows all about Muskie Fest in Hayward.

Chris Ruckdashall joins us.

He is the executive director of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce.

Hey, Chris.

Hey Pete, thanks so much for having me on.

Hey listen, I would love to be an executive director of something.

I've never had that title.

It must be an honor for you, and I'm sure it, I don't know if it helps you meet girls or put on cool festivals or what, but that's kind of a cool thing.

Well, you know what, it does sound cool, doesn't it?

But I will say this, it's not all glamour and games, that's for sure.

at a festival like this you know what I'm just coming from trash duty actually keeping the festival ground clean making sure we have power anything that it takes really is what we do and what I'm charged with doing but yeah we're excited because we're just well we're not wrapping up just yeah we got some nighttime entertainment here but

This year, we're celebrating the 75th annual Muskie Fest here in Hayward, Wisconsin.