Boston, MA Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Boston regulates massage businesses through two separate annual licenses rather than one blanket permit. , Chapter 140, Section 51" at $100; that provision was added by Ord. 2007 c. 9. 13(G) requires a distinct $100 annual license "to practice massage," but that one is granted by the Board of Health and Hospitals rather than ISD, under the same state statute, and traces back to Ord. 1976 c. 11 as amended by the 2007 ordinance. In practice this means an establishment owner pays ISD $100 to operate the business location, and every individual practitioner working there separately pays the Board of Health and Hospitals $100 to practice, so a single-therapist shop can owe $200 in combined annual license fees before any state licensing costs.

L. Chapter 140, Section 51 authorization, which is the state law under which Boston's Licensing Board and health authorities administer this category; Chapter 14-1 of the city code notes generally that "no ordinances apply" to the Licensing Board's core functions beyond what special statutes like this one supply. The excerpted fee section itself does not restate operating conditions, hours, or inspection standards for massage establishments: those are not present elsewhere in this code's massage entries, which consist solely of these two fee lines.