Columbia, SC Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Section 11-102 requires a city business license before operating a health club, massage parlor, spa, physical culture club or similar establishment, and conditions issuance on a certificate of compliance from the health department plus compliance with the city's zoning ordinance, fire prevention code, and building code. Section 11-103 spells out what the certificate application must contain: the owner's legal name and address, the proposed business location and manager, a list of every other similar business the applicant owns in the city, a full description of the building and proposed use, and for each person who will give massages or baths, their name, address, work history, health history including any communicable disease, and a list of convictions in the past ten years for health, prostitution, obscenity, or lewdness violations.

Each massage or bath provider must also furnish a medical doctor's health certificate dated within a month of application, based on a physical exam that includes a chest X-ray and syphilis test, renewed every six months and posted in the work area. Section 11-105 bars anyone under 18 from receiving or giving a massage or bath at a licensed establishment without a physician's written prescription, and makes the operator responsible for verifying age. Section 11-106 bars licensed premises from doubling as sleeping quarters or a kitchen, and bars selling goods, media, or live entertainment without a separate license.

Section 11-107 makes any lewd act involving touching genitals for sexual arousal a misdemeanor and declares the establishment a public nuisance subject to abatement, and Section 11-108 lets police, building, fire, and business license inspectors enter at reasonable times, giving the operator only 24 hours after a written inspection report to correct a noted condition before the license can be revoked.