Beloit, WI Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

20, but Ordinance #3221 repealed that chapter. 01(2) of the Beloit Code of Ordinances, recreated by Ordinance #3381, which folds tattoo and body-piercing regulation into the City's general licensing chapter by cross-reference rather than local substance. It lists five activities, engaging in body piercing, operating a body piercing establishment, operating a combined tattoo and body piercing establishment, engaging in tattooing, and operating a stand-alone tattoo establishment, and says no person may do any of them within the City of Beloit without first obtaining the license Rock County requires for that activity.

The same subsection reaches other health-permitted businesses the same way, including restaurants, retail food stores, bakeries and public swimming pools, treating the county health department's license as the operative permit inside city limits. 01(1) separately requires any City-specific license or permit named elsewhere in the Beloit Code, but tattoo and piercing work is not one of those; the City's role is limited to enforcing that the county license exists, not issuing its own. A shop opening in Beloit applies to Rock County Public Health for its tattoo or body-piercing establishment license and inspection, and only needs a separate City license if it also triggers some other City-licensed activity, such as retail sales.