The Makings and Markings of Monsters

Monster Energy’s athletes are known for their fearless, full-throttle speeds, tricks, and tenacity, but when they put on the brakes and allow themselves to be vulnerable in legendary artist Luke Wessman’s tattoo chair, that tough exterior is easier to penetrate.

“For me, those one-on-one sessions are grounding,” Wessman says. “Tattooing slows everything down and creates a space where people speak honestly. After 25 years in the chair, I’ve learned that listening is just as important as the tattoo itself.”

After a year of kicking ideas around with the Monster Energy team, Wessman was commissioned to create the original artwork for the brand’s first VIP tattoo activations at the 2023 Summer X Games in Ventura, California, strengthening his relationship with Monster and solidifying the position as its first tattoo ambassador.

“Tattooing had always been deeply woven into Monster’s world — most of the athletes and people around the brand are collectors — but Monster had a vision to give tattooing a more intentional, active footprint within the company itself,” Wessman explains.

This is where “SELF MADE” enters the picture. In the video series, Wessman steps into the lives of Monster athletes, exploring their communities and getting a taste of their sport. The script flips to Wessman’s chair, where athletes dish on their profession, upbringing, and significant life events while getting inked.

“Sitting across from someone and hearing what they’ve carried — pressure, doubt, responsibility, sacrifice — reminds me that no matter how visible or successful someone is, they’re still human,” Wessman says. “That’s really what ‘SELF MADE’ means to me. It’s not about status or achievement; it’s about the work, the choices, and the personal code people live by when no one’s watching.”

The following are the stories of three Monster Energy-sponsored athletes who have a reputation for taking their sports to the extreme — never fearing the bumps, breaks and bruises that come with the territory.

Matt Berger
Skateboarder and Two-Time Olympian

Matt Berger grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia — a place where winter bites and work is currency. Here, you proved you cared by showing up, day after day, no shortcuts. Berger learned that rhythm before he ever dreamed of Olympic qualifiers or global skate videos. “I think that those surroundings and the work ethic of people in my home city inspired me to where I wanted to work as hard as they did at their jobs, but toward skateboarding,” Berger says.

Skateboarding professionally was never a guarantee, but Berger felt it in his bones. His dad, an electrician, came home from work, his hands raw from the cold, and exhaustion etched into his posture. That image stayed with Berger. If he wanted a future on his board, he’d have to grind for it.

When Everything Can Break

Turning pro came early, but it didn’t make Berger bulletproof. A knee injury nearly erased everything. The first surgery failed. The second was a gamble. “It sucked waking up every day wondering if everything you’ve worked your whole life for, and you love the most, is going to be gone or not,” he says. “It was a lot to mentally manage, but it also brought me back to my core of why I love to skate and will always go back to skateboarding and claw my way back, no matter what happens.”

It was a four-year stretch that rewired him. His training sharpened, and the why behind every session mattered more. When he finally stepped back on his board, even the rough days felt like progress. The comeback wasn’t cinematic. It was slow, stubborn, and earned.

By the time Berger reached the Tokyo Olympics, he carried both the experience and the scars to prove his place on the team. The first run unraveled, with equipment issues, COVID-19 rules, and no easy fixes, but he adapted.

Paris went more smoothly. He didn’t medal, but he left with a sharper sense of purpose. “I gauged it on how I would feel after Paris, because it’s a lot of hard work and dedication and time away and traveling. With the way Paris went, it was kind of like, ‘Oh, my battery’s full,’” Berger explains, adding, “I definitely want to go for a third Olympics.”

He’s back in the cycle, training for his first qualifier in Brazil, locked into a routine that never softens. Five days a week start with long bike rides, then the gym. Some days it’s street filming, other days it’s warehouse sessions in Southern California. The rhythm is relentless and never easy.

He keeps himself uncomfortable by design. As a kid, Berger set a rule: do something on his board every day that scares you. That edge still drives him.

What You Carry Forward

Skateboarding splits in every direction now. Rebellion in the streets, order in the contests. Berger welcomes it all. The sport’s bigger, but for him, it’s still about the effort and intention you bring.

That grounding shows up in his tattoos, especially the family crest inked by Wessman during episode 4 of the “SELF MADE” series: a lion and crown, drawn from Berger’s British heraldry and the British Columbia coat of arms.

As a teenager, Berger’s grandparents lived in his family’s home. Their pride in heritage ran deep, and he felt it too. The tattoo is a reminder of place, spirit, and the lineage he comes from. “It was very cool to commemorate my time with my grandparents and mesh also where I’m from into one tattoo with Luke,” Berger says.

Monster Energy has backed Berger since the eleventh grade. Through injuries and setbacks, their support has remained steady, like family. “I remember when I was faced with my first knee surgery, and I was having a tough time getting through it and trying to come back. I was wondering if they’re going to cut my contract over it.” Berger says, but Monster stood by him. “Time and time again over the years, that support has been unparalleled.”

Ricky Brabec
Motorcycle Rider and Two-Time Dakar Rally Champion

As a motorcycle rider and rally racer, Ricky Brabec has broken a lot of bones, including breaking his neck twice. But “Nothing can stop a train. Nothing’s going to stop me,” Brabec says.

After each injury, training ceased and boredom kicked in. He realized he couldn’t ride, but he could sit in the tattooing chair and add to his life story in ink: his astrological symbol, the bull; two skulls that form a heart on his right leg; a train, owl, and lion on his back.

In “SELF MADE” episode 3, Wessman tattooed a winged knobby-style wheel with billowing dust on Brabec’s right calf, representing the racer’s passion and career. Prior to the session, there was little on his skin to indicate the rider’s craft. “I was like, you know, I don’t have anything on my body that shows that I ride motorcycles,” says Brabec about the inspiration for the tattoo, adding, “I’m going to ride dirt bikes until the day I die.”

Three months later, the tattoo freshly healed, Brabec broke his leg in the exact spot of the tattoo. Surgeons had to cut into the artwork, reset his tibia plateau, and hold the bones in place with two plates and 12 screws. It disfigured the artwork, but the scar just “adds to the story,” he says.

That story starts at age 5, when his father put Brabec on a BMX bike. When he was a teenager, Brabec’s family left Riverside, California, and moved to Hesperia, California, surrounded by the Mojave Desert. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is the open desert. I could just ride my motorcycle wherever I want, and when I want,’” he recalls.

Shortly after, Brabec signed up for his first motorcycle race. He had no idea what he was getting into, but he knew he wanted to explore his new surroundings and ride his dirt bike. That race was transformative, shifting him away from BMX and toward motorcycles.

“When you’re riding motorcycles, it’s just peaceful in a sense,” Brabec says. “You can explore so many things and go on top of these hills and get a bird’s eye view of where you came from, and it’s really cool.”

Building the Biker

In 2011, Brabec began desert racing, and by 2014, he was winning. Now, he only competes at rallies, which take place around the world and can last anywhere from a day to two weeks.

In 2016, Brabec participated in the Dakar Rally, the stuff of legends. The event has been held in Saudi Arabia for the last several years and can last up to 14 days, with some days lasting up to eight hours. The extreme endurance event tests a rider’s navigation skills, grit, and capabilities in unknown terrains.

Brabec has red hash marks tattooed on his thighs to count the number of times he’s competed at Dakar, but he waited until he won that coveted first-place spot in 2020 before getting a special tattoo for the Dakar Rally. That win was historic not only for Brabec, but also for America — Brabec was the first American to win the motorcycle category.

Regret is not in the discussion. “In my shoes, everything that I’ve done, every mistake that I’ve done, and every injury that I’ve gone through has made me who I am today. All of those things combined have put me where I’m at today,” Brabec says. “Why would I want to go back and change something? I’ve been so happy and so successful doing what I do that I don’t even know where else I’d be at the moment.”

In the four years between his first Dakar Rally and his win, Brabec put his perseverance and determination to the test. For three consecutive years, he had to withdraw from the race due to mechanical issues mid-race or injuries. In 2024, he won for the second time, and at the 2026 race, he placed second, missing the coveted Touareg Trophy by two seconds.

“It was pretty pissed off in the moment, and it’s definitely hard to swallow, but it’s just part of racing. It’s literally two seconds — that’s one breath,” Brabec says. “At the end of the day, on the inside, I feel like I won… I rode really well, and I’m satisfied with how my performance was.”

When he’s not competing, Brabec might go fishing, wake surfing, mountain biking, or, on rare occasions, do nothing at all “because it’s fun.” He’s also continually working on his latest side project: offering others the thrill of the outdoors through his adventure company, the Rip & Dip Ranch, located in Arizona’s Mohave Valley.

“(It’s) the new experiences that you can come enjoy, have fun, and get to live the lifestyle that we live,” Brabec says of Rip & Dip. “Other than that, I just ride motorcycles and enjoy my life as much as I can because you never know when your (last) day is.”

Kevin Peraza
BMX Rider and Eight-Time X Games Gold Medalist

For Kevin Peraza, riding starts with a surge. Rubber hits dirt, adrenaline snapping through his veins. The first trick sets it off, but what keeps him moving is raw speed, the taste of freedom, and the sense that anything can happen when his wheels leave the ground. That charge has been his driving force for about 15 years.

“(Bike riding) is a freedom of expression, and it’s an outlet to just get out there, do your thing, and enjoy it,” Peraza says. “There’s no right or wrong way of doing it.”

That same unyielding energy propelled him from Tucson’s sunburnt tracks to X Games gold and to the edge of the Olympics. At 31, Peraza is still in motion: no finish line, just the next jump, the next rush.

Peraza was raised in a BMX family, the middle brother, surrounded by bikes and a backyard that doubled as a proving ground. His dad caught the BMX fever in the 80s and never let it go. He was hooked. “He built us this backyard setup that was built on dirt,” Peraza shares. “We had a dirt jump in the backyard. We’d make all these sketchy jumps with tires under them. We would go into a ditch and build a takeoff. You name it.”

That backyard dust became a passport to the world: 13 X Games medals, podiums around the world, and a collection of stamps and scars. But the win that matters most isn’t about metal or learning the hardest trick.

“My biggest accomplishment would be being able to inspire kids with the way I ride a bike and through my personality,” Peraza says. “Whether you know BMX or don’t know BMX, I always feel like I can share a smile and positivity through riding.”

Peraza stirs park, street, and dirt into something unpredictable, rewriting the rules every time he rides. “Nowadays, I’m considered one of the few well-rounded athletes who does every discipline,” he says. “I try to bring it all into a mix and showcase, most importantly, my personality through my riding and just try to be as unique as possible.”

A Japanese-style snake coils around his leg, inked by Wessman for “SELF MADE” episode 2. The snake is wavy, unpredictable, and kind of wild. “The snake is something meaningful as far as how I ride, to growing up in Arizona. Lots of snakes. A little reminder of home,” Peraza shares.

Wessman softened the tattoo by enveloping the rattler with a chrysanthemum, balancing Peraza’s personality: sincere and cheerful with a competitive bite. Peraza rides with teeth bared, but off the bike, he’s generous, gracious, and impossible not to root for. That balance is why he’s earned his place among BMX’s most respected.

Today, Peraza is building as much off the bike as on it. He helps design the courses for the BMX Triple Challenges events held at Supercross, dreams up wild projects with Swatch, and fights for new skateparks in Mexico, where the scene is still finding its voice.

“My parents moved away from Mexico for better opportunities in the States,” he says. “There’s so much talent in Mexico. If I’m the voice and I (can) be that role model and that example of the few Mexican athletes that are traveling abroad with BMX, I think it’s that much more motivating to the kids that are starting or chasing the same dream as I am.”

Fatherhood has changed him. With a wife and child at home and new blueprints on his desk, Peraza rides smarter. “I’m a little more in control when I ride,” he explains. “I try not to do crazy tricks that are out of my comfort zone to prevent injury because I still want to get home and be a dad.” Some days he’ll cut a five-hour session to two or three hours. He applies more meaning in every practice, never forgetting to enjoy the moment.

“(I fall) all the time. I fell yesterday, so hard, so dumb,” Peraza says, laughing. “But like I said, with BMX riding, it’s a risk we’re willing to take, you know? One of the greats in BMX, Dave Mirra, has a quote that says, ‘I’d risk the fall just to know how it feels to fly.’ That’s so powerful.”

Determination, intention, and focus get Peraza through the falls, and the scars and tattoos he’s collected along the way are evidence of the blood, sacrifice, and love he puts into everything. Success and failure are part of the package, and they’re proof of what it takes to be “SELF MADE.”

Watch full episodes of Monster’s “SELF MADE” at youtube.com/monsterenergy.