Celebrity Bet: Pete Wentz

When they’re not building their own man caves they’re tattooing each other’s faces on their calves. Barely a day goes by when I don’t see some dude in a tattoo parlor getting the face of another dude permanently inked on his arm. It’s like… when is this gonna stop? Okay, so it’s not exactly a trend yet, but I sure am hoping it becomes one. 

Pete Wentz got the face of his friend, Cobra Starship frontman Gabe Saporta, tattooed on his upper ankle/lower calf. That’s some masculine confidence right there. Why? Well for the natural reason guys do dumb things: Pete Wentz lost a bet.

According to MTV.com, the Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz isn’t just a friend to Cobra Starship frontman Gabe Saporta — he’s also his label boss and friendly rival. As a result, the two have been maintaining a prank war for the past few months, culminating in a recent victory for Saporta. Paying up on a bet he made a few months ago, Pete Wentz got a new tattoo on his leg — a tattoo of Saporta’s face.

“Well, I promised Gabe if ‘Good Girls Go Bad’ went platinum, I would let him pick a tattoo to put on me,” Wentz said in a statement. “A man with such humble beginnings, of course, chose a self-portrait.” As a result, there is now a permanent mark on Wentz’s calf that features Saporta’s face and the inscription “Gabey Baby Made Me Go Bad.”

This is merely the latest shot in the public prank war that has been going on between Pete Wentz and Saporta for months. Last month at the MTV Video Music Awards, Wentz wore a T-shirt that revealed Saporta’s phone number, and while he was unable to reveal all the digits on the live broadcast, Saporta’s number still got out there, forcing him to change it.

Gabe Saporta struck back a few weeks ago at Los Premios MTV, where he announced Wentz’s e-mail address (in Spanish!) during the broadcast.

For those keeping score at home, Gabe Saporta is definitely in the lead, though according to Wentz, there may still be more to come. “I held through with the bet,” Pete Wentz said. “But let’s see if Gabe holds through with his end of the bet if Hot Mess goes gold.”

About Pete Wentz: Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III is the bassist and primary lyricist for the Chicago-based band Fall Out Boy. Pete grew up in the Chicago punk rock scene, and was in several bands before Fall Out Boy, including Firstborn, Arma Angelus, 7 Angels of the Apocalypse / Culture of Violence, Extinction, Forever Ended Today, and Yellow Road Priest.

In 2002, After playing in a handful of local bands, Pete Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman hook up with vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump to form Fall Out Boy. "We were all playing in different hardcore bands on the same scene with each other," Pete Wentz later tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Within a year, they're signed by California indie label Uprising Records. In 2002, they release their first album, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend.

In 2003, Fall Out Boy releases Take This To Your Grave. Many of the album's lyrics center on Wentz's ex-girlfriend cheating on him with two of his friends the same weekend while Wentz was on tour. Wentz later tells the Pittburgh Post-Gazette, "It was very, very cathartic. When somebody hangs up on the phone when you're 2,000 miles away from them, you have no recourse. The only reaction there is, is a pen. There's nothing else that you can do." The album becomes one of the best-selling indie records of 2003.

February 2005, Pete Wentz takes a near-lethal dose of Ativan anxiety pills while sitting alone in his sister's car in a Chicago area parking lot. "I just wanted to have my head shut up," he later tells the UK's Independent. "I was either totally anxious or totally depressed." Wentz's suicide attempt later inspires the song, "7 Minutes In Heaven (Atavan Halen)," and he becomes a spokesperson for the Jed Foundation's Half Of Us campaign, promoting mental health for students.

Fall Out Boy releases From Under the Cork Tree, which debuts at No. 9 on the Billboard charts, and eventually goes double platinum. It spawns two Top Ten hits with "Sugar, We're Going Down" and "Dance, Dance," a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and a big tour with Panic! at the Disco – a band Pete Wentz discovered and signed to his Decaydance record label.

Fueled largely by the hits "This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race" and "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs," Fall Out Boy's Infinity on High debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and goes platinum in a little over a month. In March, Pete Wentz and his bandmates appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. Soon after, he opens the nightclub Angels &; Kings in New York's East Village.

In 2008, Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson announce their engagement. "We wanted our fans to be the first to know, because you guys are the best," Ashlee Simpson says in a statement. "Yes, we are thrilled to share that we are happily engaged." The announcement is followed by persistent pregnancy reports, which they initially deny. On May 17, the pair marries in an intimate ceremony at Ashlee Simpson's parents' L.A. area home before confirming that they are, in fact, expecting their first child.

Moreover, Pete Wentz has a company called Clandestine Industries, which distributes books and, more notably, clothing, among other things. Additionally, he owns his own imprint of Fueled By Ramen, Decaydance Records, which has signed on several bands, including: Panic! At The Disco, October Fall, Gym Class Heroes and The Hush Soundand Lifetime. He also has a film production company called Bartskull Films, which has released the DVD "Release the Bats", a film about Peter, his friends both in and outside of Fall Out Boy, and many Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen bands.