Pontiac, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Article XV of the Pontiac City Code (Sections 26-761 through 26-775) regulates massage parlors within the City of Pontiac. A massage parlor is defined at Section 26-761 as any building, room, place or establishment, other than a licensed hospital, where nonmedical manipulative exercises are practiced on the body by someone who is not a physician or surgeon. Before opening, an operator needs two layers of approval: the practitioner must first hold a state myomassologist license (Section 26-763), and the business itself must separately obtain a license from the City of Pontiac under Section 26-764.

Every employee performing massage must also be a licensed practitioner, instructor or apprentice under Section 26-765. Licensed parlors may not open before 6:00 a.m. or operate past 11:00 p.m. under Section 26-766, and Section 26-767 bars disorderly conduct or the sale of liquor or narcotics on the premises. Section 26-768 limits treatment to exercise, baths and massage, forbidding medical treatment without a physician's prescription and permitting only heat and sun-ray lamps. Section 26-774 makes it unlawful for a licensee or employee to touch a client's genitals, breasts or areolas, and separately bans outcall massage outside the establishment except for clients physically unable to travel there, with a written record required for that narrow exception.

Physicians, chiropractors, osteopaths, physical therapists, licensed nurses, athletic trainers, and licensed barbers or beauticians are exempt from the article under Section 26-762 when massaging within the scope of their own licensed profession. Any violation of Section 26-774 is grounds for the city council to revoke the establishment's license.