Pete Wentz may be best known as the bassist and lyricist of the recently re-activated Fall Out Boy, but his new album isn’t the only project he’s premiering next month.
From April 3, Pete will appear as the season 2 host of Oxygen’s tattoo reality competition Best Ink. Pete spoke to Hypable about his new role as Best Ink‘s ‘ring-master’ and shared his thoughts on Fall Out Boy fan tattoos, the importance of respecting counter-culture, and, of course, his own ink.
Best Ink will follow twelve of the country’s leading tattoo artists as they compete for a cover story in Tattoo Magazine, plus $100,000 prize money. World-renowned tattoo artist Joe Capobianco returns as the show’s head judge and takes on the role of mentor, alongside international pinup model and tattoo removal shop owner Sabina Kelley and a new judge, distinguished pinup and portrait tattoo specialist Hannah Aitchison.
Contestants will take part in a series of high pressure tasks – “Flash Challenges,” which will focus on the artistic and design aspects, and “Ink Challenges,” in which the artists will tattoo real people, or Skins, – a permanence rarely seen in the reality competition world. Pete Wentz will host the ten-episode season.
Pete describes Best Ink as a show that has “something for everybody,” whether you’re familiar with tattoo culture or not.
“If you’re coming at it new, there’s an aspect that’s more pop culture driven than other tattoo competition shows, and we’re really going to the area of the art and the process,” he explains.
“We hung out with everyone from Travie McCoy, he got tattooed on our show, we have Ray J on it, the Simmons sisters did some stuff. We showed the way that tattoos culture permeates pop culture in general. On top of that, for tattoo enthusiasts and people who are part of that culture already, people like Joe and Hannah are so knowledgeable and so credible. The stuff that they were saying, whether it’s critiques or the advice they’re giving – it’s all stuff that went deep and was not just for camera. I learned a lot myself from what they were saying, everything from line weights to shading – I just got a whole new and different respect for it. From the first day when I showed up and Joe was like, ‘you don’t call them tattoo guns, those are tattoo machines.’”
We asked Pete’s thoughts on the way tattoos are moving from counter-culture to a place of mainstream acceptance, and why the stigma against the heavily tattooed image has persisted.
“I think that they’ve moved to become more safe as they’ve become marks of individuality.”
“I think there’s a stigma against it because originally it was people from the quote unquote ‘scourges of society’ that got them, whether it was criminal element, or the underclass, and then guys in rock bands that got them for years probably didn’t help the image that much. I think that they’ve moved to become more safe as they’ve become marks of individuality. There’s certain tattoos that are still real hard, neck tattoos and hand tattoos, things that we call job-stoppers. People still don’t really like those in the office place, probably.”
Pete elaborated on this transition of tattoos becoming a pop-culture interest, comparing it to the rise in popularity of punk rock music or hip-hop. “Essentially, if counter-culture is embraced by enough people, it just permeates pop culture. There’s definitely moments where you realise that tattoos are part of everyday life and everyday conversation. The only time that can become a negative is when you take something further in to pop culture without really understanding what held up the culture, and the adherence to the culture.”
That’s why Pete thinks having veterans such as judge Joe Capobianco as a key player on Best Ink gives the show the integrity that the tattoo counter-culture deserves. “Joe will be tattooing whether it’s big or not big, if everyone looked at it or not, it’s just something that he lives and dies, as well as Hannah and Sabina too. I think it’s really important that while we’re embracing the pop culture elements of it and having fun with these stunts and flash challenges, I think it’s really important to have a guy like Joe, or someone like Hannah, who really knows the history of it and was there when tattoos weren’t a part of pop culture, when you got dirty looks for having tattoos and were forced to wear long-sleeved shirts.”
He continues, “I think it’s always important to remember those things, just like with hip hop music or counter culture film or anything of that stuff. It’s just very important to remember what brought you there and not forget that.”
Pete himself is heavily tattooed, of course – “I have my whole right sleeve done, my chest, tonnes on my left arm and a little bit on my legs,” and got his first tattoo work done at age 15, however, looking at him, you probably wouldn’t be able to spot his most beloved tattoo very often – it’s hidden inside his left ‘swear finger.’ “It says ‘2 star R’, the direction to Neverland – second star to the right,” Pete explains, and calls this little hidden piece his favorite.
When asked whether hosting Best Ink was comparable to being the front-man of a band, Pete describes the experience as a completely different skill set. “One of the things I learned on the set of a TV show, and especially from hosting, is that – my job was basically to be the ringmaster as far as a lot of stuff went – but you need a certain kind of patience, or listening skills, which maybe wasn’t my greatest skill set before, but I have realised that from listening to different people I could inject better things than just broadcasting all the time.”
“It’s helpful sometimes to just stop and listen and really formulate your opinion before you talk.”
He reveals that the experience actually helped him in a lot of aspects, including in the recording studio and in everyday life too. “It’s helpful sometimes to just stop and listen and really formulate your opinion before you talk.”
Pete told Hypable that on the Best Ink set, he used those skills mostly with the competing tattoo artists – “I heard a lot of the Skins’ stories but, for me, the important part was listening to what the artists said and listening to the critiques the judges had of them” – but that when it came to the Skins – some who had never been tattooed before – it was all about attitude.
“It didn’t seem like how satisfied people were with the tattoos really related to whether they had a lot or didn’t have a lot. People who weren’t satisfied a lot of the time seemed like they wouldn’t be satisfied no matter what the tattoo was like.”
Given how well he knows the weight and meaning behind getting inked, Hypable asked Pete about being on the flip-side and having his own work be the inspiration of many fan tattoos? “I have a split opinion about it, “ he admitted. “Sometimes we’re signing stuff, or you sign peoples’ arms and they say they’re going to get it tattooed – it feels so weird because I’m not narcissistic enough to think that people should have my handwriting or ideas on their body forever. That always worries me a little bit. But at the same time, it always blows my mind when I see fans who are that dedicated.”
And as for what he thinks makes a great Fall Out Boy fan tattoo? “I think the most creative ones are the most interesting. People who don’t get signatures, people who maybe take words or build ideas around it. I definitely saw a Ferdinand the Bull [from The Story Of Ferdinand, the children’s book containing a quote that became the album title for Fall Out Boy’s From Under The Cork Tree] one. That was pretty cool.”
When Best Ink returns, one of the season’s guest judges will be Travie McCoy, the lead singer of Gym Class Heroes, a band that got their start on Pete’s Decaydance Records label. Pete cites his friendship tattoo with Travie – who is also the godfather of Pete’s son Bronx – as one of his most special pieces.“I have half of a banner and he has half of a banner and they meet up on our wrists. His says, ‘young hearts’ and mine says, ‘be free,’ like the Rod Stewart song. That one is probably most meaningful.”
Pete has a few other tattoos commemorating his musical career and his Decaydance family – “I got a keyhole on my arm, when my band sold a million records for the first time with From Under The Cork Tree. It was symbolic to me at the time – I don’t know if I ever told anyone about that. And I got my buddy Gabe Saporta from Cobra Starship on my leg.” Pete specifies that most of his tattoos are quite planned out, but told Hypable that this particular piece is the most impulsive ink he’s ever gotten.
“I told my son that if he wanted to write his name on me that I would get that tattooed.”
When asked about future tattoo plans, Pete, who considers his tattoos to be “a snapshot of moments in my life,” revealed a few ideas that he has in mind. He’ll get something for Bronx: “I actually told my son on the way to school today that if he wanted to write his name on me that I would get that tattooed, in his handwriting,” and in regards to getting inked to mark Fall Out Boy’s reunion – though Pete has always insisted that band never officially broke up – he says that he’s thinking about it, for the upcoming release of Save Rock and Roll.
“There’s definitely this new idea, not a logo but a idea…We’re going to launch it in the next two or three days on the Fall Out Boy site, but it’s pretty cool and I think it’s something that would look cool. If the rest of the band were into getting it tattooed, I would get it tattooed on me.”
Pete didn’t receive any new tattoos himself during the filming of Best Ink, though he’s keen to get work done by some of the artists in future. He wasn’t able to reveal his favorites among the contestants – spoilers! – but more than anything he wants to get work done by the judges, Joe and Hannah, and already has plans to meet up with Hannah, a fellow Chicago native, to get a tattoo in his home city.
In addition to Fall Out Boy’s new album and tour, and of course to hosting Best Ink, Pete has recently released a novel, Gray. Gray is Pete’s second book, published eight years after his first, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. Fall Out Boy fans were aware that Pete was working on a second book for many years, and Hypable asked Pete about the process of finally putting his writing together as a novel.
“It was kind of a never-ending process. I didn’t know what I was doing with the editing and this was just a bunch of words, it wasn’t a narrative for a long time. My friend James Montgomery really helped me create it in to a story that other people could relate to and read.” Gray is certainly a concise finished product, but Pete’s online followers may recognise fragments of prose that began life in secret blog post over the years. “There’s some passages that I left in there to hopefully jump out at people. Things that were put in on purpose.”
Returning to the subject of tattoos, Pete truly is dedicated to what he calls a fascinating art form, and loves being a ‘walking canvas.’ “It’s a living, breathing piece of art. I think it’s interesting because everyone’s body has a different shape and a different skin tone so tattoos look different depending on who it is, depending on when you got them.”
“Tattoos are such an interactive art form..”
“They all tell different stories. With this show, we go through everything from traditional tattoos to stuff that’s more illustrative to wacky, animated tattoos, just crazy stuff. I think that there’s something in there for everyone. Tattoos are such an interactive art form. The wearer makes the choice of how much they’ll add to it and how far they’ll go with it. I don’t think it’s something to hide in the shadows any more; a lot of people I know, I have friends that are doctors who have tattoos and friends that are in bands who have tattoos. All walks of life.”
Oxygen’s season 2 of Best Ink premieres at 10pm ET, April 3
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