← Shannon Cason's Homemade
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Shannon Cason
Girls wanted, paw prints, cat scratches, panthers, any kind of cat. Shannon Case and Homemade is proud to be supported by the friends of Homemade. Thank you to everyone who listens, enjoys and supports the stories. I'mma call you out if you supported me since the previous episode. To my friends Steve D in Minnesota, you always with me. Thank you for joining the Patreon. Monica Hill thank you for joining the Patreon. My best friends. Karina V. I appreciate you for joining the Patreon. My play cousins. I'm putting my hands together right now. Robin N. Thank you. Thank you. Robin into Rachel H in Idaho. Very very cool. Thank you for being so supportive. I appreciate all the encouragement from everyone evermore. I appreciate you so many others. Make sure you review or on Apple and Spotify. It helps the podcast greatly. The Patreon and support From Cash App PayPal. All that is so necessary. I'm a freelancer and sometimes between contracts this support is so necessary. It keeps the stories coming. So thank you. Homemade is a friend funded podcast. Visit patreon.com backslash Shannon Casein or $sign Shannon Casein on Cash app if you'd like to go direct. I appreciate you all. All right. Enjoy the show. Storyteller to Storyteller is creative conversations with me about storytelling every Sunday at 8pm Eastern on YouTube live. Make sure you subscribe to Shannon Cason on YouTube and now also look for Storyteller to Storyteller. It has its own page on YouTube. Please please go subscribe. I don't have many subscribers. Go subscribe. These are excellent conversations if you enjoy the moth snap judgment risk Homemade other storytelling shows you love Storyteller to Storyteller. It's creative conversations and you will learn to tell your own stories too. And for Black History Month I have some all stars. I have I have Mother Boomer from her popular storytelling TikTok channel. I have Dr. Ray Christian from what's Racing podcast Binky, who's the host of Grown Folk Stories in Chicago Grow. Great show. And I have Shawna Renee this Sunday, a storyteller and radio personality. She's the daughter of the Black eagle, Joe Madison. The late Joe Madison. And she's going to be on here. It's going to be an honor to speak to her this Sunday. So please go subscribe to Storyteller to Storyteller. Let's keep this thing going. All right. Enjoy the show. Welcome to Homemade. I'm Shannon Caser. I'm going to get a tattoo eventually. I don't have any right now. I've been saying this though for about 30 years or so. I like the art of tattoos. I love looking at it, at tattoos. I do like looking at them. I watched this show called Ink Masters and I like how they break down the importance of technique. It'll be a nice tattoo I'm looking at on the screen, but the experts detail it to the point where it's a shot shitty tattoo. But in my head I'm thinking, man, that's still a nice tattoo. But they break down the techniques and various methods of tattooing. It's interesting. Everything is an art if you really look at it. I used to think suits were just suits back before I sold custom suits. And then I learned that there's a whole art to tailoring and suit making. The fabric mills, the, the actual tailor, the person who cuts it in the style of the suit. Same with tattooing. It's a trade, it's an art. But I still see the beauty of the immediacy of going and getting a three ring binder at the local tattoo shop and just getting a tattoo. I dated a woman just recently who she just said she was going to get a tattoo, like going to get her nails done. And I was kind of shocked, but I thought that's pretty cool. Just with how cavalier the decision was, I thought that that was badass. I think I'll do it that way if I do get a tattoo eventually. Just unplant three wing binder. Something on the wall. But this is a short story or thought. I don't know how much of a story it is, but this is a short story. Thought about tattoos. I hope you enjoy. When I was young, my first thought of a tattoo was Popeye. Remember Popeye? Popeye the sailor man. I'm Popeye the sailor man. I have a distinct memory of watching Popeye when my mom and dad were still together. We lived on the northwest side of Detroit, right off the Avenue of fashion, which is still a popping area. The avenue of fashion, still a cool area in Detroit. You should come visit. I was sitting on this brown couch in the living room watching Popeye cartoons. And one thing about Popeye, there were all types of different characters. There was Popeye, of course, olive oil, Brutus. And there was some others too. He had kids and friends, but those were the main characters. Now, Brutus and Olive Oil were pretty toxic. Oh, I just love a man with muscles. Oh, yeah, well, I'm your man, you know. Brutus was a brute, of course, but olive oil would flirt with Brutus right in front of Popeye. Then Brutus would Go too far. He would go too far. Good me over, baby. I'm the strongest man in the world. Kidnap olive Oil, do some real thirst bucket shit. And then Popeye holds on me sweet potootie, I am on me way. Then olive oil would need saving and old simpy savior Popeye would eat his spinach then go save the day. Oh, Popeye, you're the real Mr. Muscle. But right after that, she would go back to pushing Popeye around, really bullying Popeye, then flirt with Brutus again right in front of Papa. They were really toxic to Popeye, when I think about it. We can argue this if you like to, but I wish I was Popeye's friend. I wish I was. I would tell him, man, you gotta move on. This isn't working. She don't respect you. We gotta do something different with our lives, brother. That was just a thought. That's just a thought. But Popeye had tattoos. That's the point I was trying to make. Popeye had tattoos. And that was my first thought of tattoos. It wasn't a compelling one, by the way. As I got older, I found out tattoos were supposed to mean anti establishment. I'm a contrarian, I'm a rebel. I had an opportunity to get a tattoo in high school. My best friend at the time was this funny dude, real funny dude, named O'Neill. O'Neill was really funny, too. I told him he should go into comedy, and I think he did. I think he, when he moved to la, got involved with the Groundlings because he was really funny. I was funny too, but I'm funny in a dry way, you know, he was really just funny. He did some comedy. I'll tell you more about him in an upcoming story. But we went to Gibraltar Trade center, me and O'Neill, in Taylor, Michigan, and it's not there anymore, but it was a swap meet that was as big as a mall. I remember you had to pay a fee to get into the Gibraltar Trade center, but once you were in, they had everything you could possibly think of. Vinyl record collections, Beanie babies, baseball cars, army surplus supplies. I got all my 90s hip hop camouflage gear from Gibraltar Trade Center. Guns, they had guns and even more guns and Confederate flags. It could have been called Gibraltar's Gun and Good Old Boys Meetup. There was a lot of guns and they had a few tattoo vendors, too. We were walking around Gibraltar Trade center, and that's what you did as a teenager. All you wanted to do is like, walk around a mall. But in this case, it was Gibraltar Trade Center. So we were just walking around, and I remember we walked past the tattoo vendors and O'Neal says, I'm gonna get a tattoo. It was the most spontaneous, everlasting forever things I had seen. I thought he was kidding. O'Neill is like one of these fun, funny, silly guys. All my best friends, best friends have always been more funny and outgoing than me. I'm like the Ed McMahon type to the Johnny Carson type. You know, I. All my friendships are like that. I kind of like playing the straight man in comedy. I'm dry. That's kind of. I feel comfortable there, like, watching my friend do all the crazy and then me joining in reluctantly. But O'Neill says, I'm gonna go get a tattoo. And he goes in the booth and he talks a little while and he looks through a three ring binder, and the next thing I know, he's in the chair. And there's a guy who looks like One of the ZZ Top guys drawn on O'Neill's forearm with a tattoo gun. And that's what tattoo people look like back then. ZZ Top, they own a Harley. They're in the biker gang. And what makes this even more funny and crazy is the guy who looked like ZZ Top was tattooing. Is it tattooing? That's what you say, inking or what do you say? Drawing? But the guy who looks like ZZ Top is tattooing black love on O'Neal's forearm. That's what O'Neal wanted. He wanted black love written on his forearm. I don't know how painful tattoos on the forearm are, but O'Neal was wincing and fighting and I was laughing, but he got it done. Black love on the forearm. Your turn, Shannon. Nah, I'm good. Soon after, it seemed like tattoos were everywhere. I'm a black kid from Detroit in the early 90s, and it may be different where you are, but I think Detroit was the start of the tattoo craze. And it came from one of our great counterculture athletes of our generation, Detroit Pistons power forward Dennis Robin. Once you have so much pain in your life, I mean, you put pain in your body. Now we can argue that if you like. I will say this, though. No one wanted to be like Dennis Rodman. I. It's usually like this, though. One guy belly flops into the pool, then everyone else feels more comfortable to dip in a toe than a foot. Then everyone has a few tattoos. Girls wanted paw prints, cat scratches, panthers, any kind of cat. The key areas for the women were breast meat, thigh meat, hit Me, my favorite tattoo on a woman is that front hip tattoo. Like this. This right, right here. Or the side hip though. So sexy. So sexy. And this was the time of the infamous lower back tattoo, the tramp stamp. You got one, don't you? Be honest. Let me see it. Let me see it. Guys wanted barbed wire bulldogs. Crosses are always popular. Tribal tattoos. I was going to get a tribal armband around my biceps. I always been told, you know, I had nice biceps. I walked past numerous tattoo parlors on the street tempted, but always said, nah, I'm good. I'm so glad I didn't get a tribal band on my arm though. Tattoos are ubiquitous now. You like that word, don't you? Ubiquitous. Use that word today. That's your word of the day. Now you see tattoos everywhere. I'm single now and most the women I've dated have at least one or two tattoos. One lady, she had a baby fat tattoo, like a baby fat logo right on her front hip. It was like throwback sexy. You knew that that was sexy back in the day. Some women even have a whole ass full of tattoos. Those are some upcoming stories. So stick with me. Those will be some good stories. And it's not only bartenders with full arm sleeve tattoos, but it's your daughter's fifth grade science teacher. She has them too. And she doesn't even hide it. I'm in my 40s now and I've been getting that itch again. I'm single. I've been working out. Sometimes when I look at myself after a shower, I think I look good with some tattoos. Maybe I could take some attention away from old scars or old skin. Some women are even turned on by why you think olive oil stayed with Popeye so long. But what do I get? Maybe I go with the tried and true cross or Bible verse. Or maybe my kids names. Or maybe, just maybe, maybe the name of this show. Maybe I get homemade. And where do I put it? On my. On my forearm? On my bicep? On my neck? Maybe my forehead? Or maybe I just keep all my spider veins and scars and aging skin visible and I just say, nah, I'm good. Shout out to all my untattooed people out there who always said, nah, I'm good. Thank you for listening. This episode was produced at home in Detroit. I'm in Detroit this time by me, Shannon Kacen. Subscribe to Shannon Kacen on YouTube. This story will be available pretty soon on video, but also subscribe to Storyteller the Storyteller on YouTube. Consider supporting the stories on Patreon.com Shannoncasen or Cash App $sign Shannoncasen or you can find other ways on my website. It's@shannoncasen.com Be a friend of the stores. And for more information on workshops and speaking engagements, go to shannoncasen.com and the beat for this episode is produced by A Margin of Freedom. Follow A Margin of Freedom on Instagram and listen to his production on Bruce Kush's album Flamingo Bay Grotto and the Narco Gorillas. Thank you so much. Come back soon for more and more stories. I'll be back next week. Now that's homemade.