About 90% of tattoo inks in the United States contain ingredients not listed on their labels, according to a study published this spring in the journal Analytical Chemistry. So how can consumers know what is safe to put into their skin?

To find out, Mike Rogers visited with Dillon Forte, a tattoo artist based in the Austin, Texas area, about how to know who to trust, the differences between black and colored tattoos, and how the industry is regulated differently in the U.S. than it is in Europe.  

It seems like everyone in Hollywood is ready for their close up, even wild animals. For example, a smiling bear that was recently photographed near Pasadena, Calif. According to the Los Angeles Times, wildlife photographer Johanna Turner captured the rare black bear image with a trail cam in late April. Nature and urban life seem to be crossing paths more and more lately. Sam Benson Smith, digital managing editor at Audacy station KNX in Los Angeles, joined the “Something Offbeat” podcast to talk about it.

On this week's episode of Offbites, Chris and Lauren discuss a fast food restaurant's newest dessert, which name could set a world record in a specific country, and why anyone would dive into the water with a killer whale.

A decade ago, a plane carrying 239 people vanished over the Indian Ocean. Since then, the mystery has stumped experts and left the loved ones of those aboard without closure. However, some researchers believe that searching in the right area will reveal the remnants of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. One of them is Vincent Lyne, and he recently joined the “Something Offbeat” podcast to discuss his research. He’s a researcher for the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania who has been independently researching the disappearance for years.

For years, a 17-second song clip was floating around the internet, puzzling music fans. People loved it, but they had no idea where it was from. This year, they finally found out. Laura Holliday, a writer who specializes in internet culture, joined host Mike Rogers on the “Something Offbeat” podcast to talk about the mystery and how it was finally solved.

On this week's Offbites, Lauren and Chris discuss a Florida man who wrangled an alligator near a busy shopping strip, a person regularly using the bathroom at a Michigan cemetery, and how several horses got loose on the streets of London.

It’s cicada-mania! For the first time in more than two centuries, two broods of North American cicadas will emerge from the Earth at the same time. One hasn’t been up in 13 years and the other has been underground for 17 years, and they are both different from the typical cicadas we hear every summer. “Something Offbeat” host Mike Rogers caught up with Tom Tiddens of the Chicago Botanic Garden to learn more about the broods and explore some of the mystery around cicadas. Mysteries like what they are doing for all those years underground.

Two weeks ago, much of the country stopped for a few minutes in the middle of the day to watch at least a partial solar eclipse. And in the path of totality, researchers were keeping an eye on animals to see how four minutes of darkness changed their behaviors.

This week on Something Offbeat, Dr. Adam Hartstone-Rose, a professor of biological science at North Carolina State University, joined Mike Rogers, to discuss his findings from April 8.

Lexington, Ky., recently started something it calls “the world’s first interstellar tourism campaign,” trying to attract extraterrestrials to the city, and the Associated Press wrote about it. Roswell, N.M., has long been a destination for UFO tourism, and “Something Offbeat” talked with Dennis Balthasar of the International UFO Museum and Research Center there about why people love aliens. 

This week on Offbites, Lauren and Chris break down which city's remote work relocation package is the most appealing (hint: Lauren may soon be a Rochester resident), discuss the ethics of a gas station hack, and hear the heartwarming story of a community that came together to support a young girl.