My Most Recent Tattoo

The Voodoo Ranger Mascot

On my forearm

By: Youssef Chaz Chronic

Here’s a whacky story on how I got my most recent tattoo.

I was high on magic mushrooms and was sitting on my bed with my back against my bedroom wall leaning on some pillows.

Now I don’t know if any of you have ever done mushrooms before, so let me preface this by saying that for many it can be a life changing/enhancing experience and depending on how much you take, or the type of person you are, you might enter different dimensions – such as yours truly – and interact with other worldly beings.

Also, just an FYI, mushrooms are perhaps the safest drug when taken under the right conditions and circumstances, but if you ever plan on tripping for the first time, I highly advise that you read up all about it first, and maybe even have a sober friend hangout who can help should anything go awry. I say this because a bad trip can be reeeaaallllly bad…. But, that can be a topic for another blog post.

Anyways…

During this period in my life – about two years ago – I would trip every weekend by myself all throughout the night until the sun came up. On this particular journey, I was mostly interacting with friendly beings from other space dimensions. They were communicating with me and hanging around me curious as to who - and what - I was. My bed would turn into a comfy convertible spaceship, and if I sat still and stared at my bedroom wall pretty soon my room would transform into the universe, and I would find myself floating in the middle of the cosmos. All around me it looked like one of those high resolution pictures that you see in a National Geographic magazine.

My bed/spaceship was floating in the middle of something like this…

Some beings would float past, while others would stop in front of my bed/spaceship and observe me. Most of them were tall and skinny and had no face, and their bodies were jet black and smooth in texture. It looked as if they were wearing a black spandex body suit. They weren’t scary or ominous, actually I found their presence pretty calming. I would wave a hand at them and communicate using my mind that I was a friend, and they would raise theirs in return before wafting away and disappearing into space. There were others too but it was hard to see them. I could only sense their presence and would see their shapes forming in a type of mist but then they would quickly disappear.

In my hand was an IPA that I was clutching for the past few hours. A Voodoo Ranger IPA from New Belgium Brewing. Generally speaking, while on a trip I don’t feel the urge to drink, and when I do it’s in very small sips so by this point the beer I was clutching was still pretty full and warm. For the last few months the Voodoo Ranger IPA became part of my tripping ritual, and some of the spirits, especially the plant and tree ones (I’ll do another post on those guys) enjoyed drinking this beer through me. Yes, I know it sounds weird, but through me some of these beings were able to taste beer.

After several hours the mushroom effect began dissipating and cosmos had evaporated, yet I could sometimes still hear them speaking to me. At one point I heard one of them say “Voodoo Ranger”, and I answered by saying “huh?” and I then could hear several voices join in and they said again “Voodoo Ranger. Voodoo Ranger.” I nodded and without speaking I told them “Yes, I am indeed drinking a Voodoo Ranger beer…” but then they responded again and said “No. You. You are the Voodoo Ranger” I understood then that it was the nickname they gave me. I thought it was pretty damn cool, and so, I decided that day to get a tattoo of the Skeleton mascot of the beer. A few months ago I actually did get it on my forearm (see picture at the top of this post). This way, whenever I’m on one of my trips they can see it on me, and they can know who I am.