about dr. woo

about

After an obsession with body art landed him at a legendary L.A. tattoo shop, Dr. Woo inked himself into his status as the world’s most in-demand tattoo artist with a three-year-long waitlist.

Think of it as the American Dream in delicate, elegant strokes of black and gray, punctuating a forearm, stamping a shoulder, encircling a collarbone. Brian Woo, the son of Taiwanese immigrants who spoke zero English when they landed in the U.S., grew up surrounded by the grittier bits of L.A. He latched on to his passion early, paid his dues and gained worldwide fame for his artistry before he even hit his mid-30s.

But that’s the short version of this #singleneedle superhero’s rise to the top. The story started with 12-year-old Brian exchanging “hand-poked” India ink smiley faces with a childhood friend.

That led to his first professional tattoo at age 14, the first of many more to come. By age 18, he’d found his way to Shamrock Social Club.

Long before there were 1.6 million Instagram followers, before he was inking dragon tattoos on none other than the Mother of Dragons herself, before he designing works of art for Justin Bieber, and album covers for Drake, before he became a front-row fixture at Paris Fashion Week, Woo logged 10 solid years as the apprentice to industry legend Mark Mahoney, the owner of Shamrock.

At the landmark Sunset Strip tattoo parlor, Woo did anything and everything that was asked of him. As he told the Los Angeles Times, mopping floors, setting up equipment – even scrubbing toilets – were all part of Dr. Woo’s Shamrock job description while he learned his craft.

But learn it he did. And soon, there was a months-long waiting list for his intricate, iconic designs. Once word got out about how good Dr. Woo was, his clientele base gave way to a galaxy of edgy celebrities clamoring to sit in his chair. Travis Scott, Sam Smith, Zoë Kravitz, Demi Lovato...the bold-face tally is endless.

Filled with gratitude but knowing it was time to fly solo, Dr. Woo set up his own exclusive, by-appointment-only shop in 2017 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel: Hideaway at Suite X Los Angeles.

Initially kept so under wraps that clients didn’t know the exact location until it was texted to them, Hideaway is perfect for ink-fanatic clients like Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, who celebrate each new album with a fresh tat.

Today, the increasingly in-demand Dr. Woo splits his time between his meticulously appointed, art-filled Hideaway studio, a heavy travel schedule and his growing roster of brand collaborations. Tapping a wide range of interests that includes art, food and fashion, Woo has partnered with Sacai, Lamborghini, Adobe, Converse, Neighborhood, John Elliot, Hornitos, Modernica, Dropbox and Levi’s, for which he created a capsule collection.

Dr. Woo’s next foray is as an entrepreneur with the newly launched WOO skin essentials, a line of consciously crafted solutions that address daily skin needs. Developed in small batches by Dr. Woo himself, WOO is a curated collection of essentials formulated to nourish, protect and care for even the most sensitive skin – with or without ink.