Co-Owner of Tg Tattoo: Way More Than Meets The Eye
by Lisa Morgan
An imposing 6’3″ tall, and 243 pounds, Sean Wood, co-owner of Tg Tat, is not an individual you would feel comfortable accidentally bumping into in a dark alley. But his impressive presence, with tattoos visible even if he was wearing a tuxedo, is exactly the guy you’d want by your side. To say the least, he is a force to be reckoned with, but not in the ways you might assume. This self-made man and entrepreneur has an energy that can overcome impossible odds when he sets his mind to it. He is a visionary and a doer. Hard work is the LAST thing he is afraid of, and his heart is as big as the rest of him.
Born in Torrance and raised in San Francisco, Wood moved here in December of 2004. “I was hired as the manager of “Rain In The Desert” a nightclub inside the Morongo Casino. After that I was able to buy into “Dale’s Lost Highway”, a bar/club in Palm Springs. I had a kid, another business, and stayed ever since.” Wood sold his smoke shop when friend and current business partner, Tony, came to him about opening a tattoo shop. “We took whatever money we had from selling the business, and put all our money down on city permits and licensing. So we literally had no money to put into the business itself. So I would bartend. Tony would do tattoos. We’d build one station. Then repeat until it was done. We’ve been doing it ever since.”
Wood and his wife also take care of his mom who has partial dysplasia after suffering from a stroke. He works tediously to prolong every form of therapy that he can work through insurance. At one point Wood had to come between his mom and her doctor who was giving her a negative assessment of her condition. “I pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey man, can you keep hope alive please! You’re not God.’ I’ll do anything I can to protect her spirit.”
Wood is clear on how all the women in his life rank. “My wife, Sabrina – she is a great woman! Sabrina Wood is the reason for any little bit of success I have. She says ‘yes’ all the time. I come up with these crazy ideas, and when I get in the middle of it and freak out, she is the one picking up all the bullshit and handing it right back to me saying, ‘You said you wanted to do this, so do it.’ I owe every ounce of whatever success I have to my wife. PRINT THAT! She is 100% a great woman!” (And when Sean Wood tells you, emphatically, to “PRINT THAT”, well…you PRINT THAT!)
Wood says one of his idols is his dad. “I’m sorry… I was kicked out at 17 for being a stupid kid and getting into trouble. 18 years later, after not speaking to him AT ALL, he died of cancer. To this day, he is still the most respected man in my life. I guess what I’m saying is that he taught me more in the first 17 years than I pieced together on my own in the last 20. For that, I am forever grateful. He is truly my idol and inspiration. His values hold strong with me to this day.”
For Wood, a career and life affirming moment took place after the very first “Palm Trees and Tattoos” tattoo conference that he and his business partner, Tony, launched (an event that due to its success, is an annual convention at the Hard Rock Hotel in Palm Springs). “After the first Palm Trees and Tattoos convention, there were 10 or 15 heavy hitters in the industry that hung out and chilled with us. The place was a mess from the aftermath. My daughter had been there all day helping out. I hadn’t seen her in a couple hours. I idolize these guys that were hanging out with me down there. My daughter came around the corner, and she whispered in my ear – she pulled me down to her and with tears in her eyes, she told me she was proud of me. I pulled her over to a corner where I thought no one could see and well…there may have been a few tears on my face as well. I held her close … I had this moment with my daughter. Then a guy from the Hard Rock pointed at me and said, ‘That’s what it is all about right there!’ All these idols of mine stood there for a moment, smiled and started clapping. I don’t know if there could be another moment like that. You go through of all the stress of putting something like that together, with the hopes that someone will show up – and you take all the hate and salt and trash talking coming at you from all angles. Then at the very end, you come out a little bit in the black, and your daughter says that to you. I know I’m doing something I’m supposed to do, if something like that can make you that happy. Fuck the naysayers! I’m just going to be me, and keep pushing forward.”
Follow TG Tat at tgtattoo.com
