Knox County, TN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Article II of Chapter 50 licenses and regulates sexually oriented businesses, defined by Sec. 50-28 to include adult bookstores and video stores, adult cabarets, adult motels, adult motion picture theaters, semi-nude model studios, sexual device shops, and sexual encounter centers. Sec. 50-29 makes it unlawful to operate such a business, or to work there as an employee as the chapter defines that term, without a valid sexually oriented business license or employee license issued by the county clerk's office, on a notarized application listing the applicant's names used over the prior five years, address, and government-issued proof of age.

Sec. 00 for annual renewal. Sec. 50-33 makes a license valid for one calendar year, with renewal applications due at least 90 days before expiration. Sec. 50-32 lets the county building code department inspect patron areas on an occasional basis to check compliance, narrowly construed to bar excessive inspection patterns, though rented rooms at an adult motel are exempt. Sec. § 15-1-101. Secs. 50-34 and 50-35 let the county suspend a license up to 30 days, or revoke it for a year, for knowing violations, drug or prostitution activity on the premises, or operating during a suspension, with a hearing and appeal process under Sec. 50-36.