Pete Wentz is hosting the season two of Best Ink that airs Wednesdays on Oxygen at 10p. Recently I was on a conference call where he talked about his tattoos and why he decided to take on this job.
When you think of Pete Wentz and what type of competition show he would be a part of, you would think it would be one involving music. He explained why he said yes to this show and not the others. He said, “I get hit up to do whatever kind of reality show or whatever and they don’t really make a whole lot of sense for me. This one did, because I felt like it was authentic to my brand.” Then he added, “I’ve been into tattoos for a while; I wanted to learn more. And obviously I’ve been an enthusiast. I felt like after meeting with Joe and realizing that I’d get to learn a lot about the inner workings of a tattoo shop and more about tattoo culture that was really important to me.”
So why he is so fascinated by tattoos? He said, “I think to be a walking canvas is a pretty cool thing. It’s an actual living, breathing piece of art. It’s interesting because everybody’s body kind of has a different skin tone and shape so tattoos look different depending who it is, depending on when you got them.”
Wentz was just 15 when he got his first tattoo and he described it as “brutal.” He then had some advice for teens who are thinking about going under the needle, “I definitely recommend waiting until legal age to get tattooed. Not just because you’re probably doing some shady stuff. But also because I think people really have to grow into who they are, who you think you’re going to be for a long time. ‘Cause when you’re 15, you think, 30 seems like it’s gonna be forever. But one day you will be 30 and you’ll have that tattoo still.”
So since then what is his most meaningful tattoo that he has on his body. He answered that it is one he shares with Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, he described it as “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,’ a Rod Stewart song.” And in the future he will be adding another one to his body, “I remember I actually told my son on the way to school, as soon as he learns to write his own name, I’ll probably get tattooed in his handwriting. At some point that’ll happen.” He’ll look good with Bronx Mowgli on his body somewhere, just hopefully not where his son came from. Although that might be one of the few places left where he can get it. That’s because when I asked him how many tattoos he has, he said “I have my whole right sleeve done. I have my chest. I have part of my left arm and then a little bit on my legs. My favorite’s probably one inside my left swear finger. It’s hidden. It’s the directions to Neverland, second star to the right. I don’t know…”
While Wentz is good at getting tattooed, he is not good at giving them. He told us that he once gave one to his friend Dirty, but it didn’t turn out so well. He explained, “You know it didn’t help that we were on tour and there was a bunch of people watching. And you know, people were like ‘it’s not working’ and they were like ‘do it harder.’ And it was on his shin and honestly it was not ever going to be a good tattoo, but it maybe didn’t need to be as bad as it was.”
Maybe now that he is watching all of these people on Best Ink 2, he will get some tips on the proper way to do it on someone else in the future. And while he didn’t get any new tats when he was working on the show, he does plan on having at least two of them ink him up in the future. Think you know he wants to leave their mark on him? Tune in to find out…
