Bensalem, PA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)
Key Facts
- Banned district
- PCD-UD Planned Commerce Park Unified Development District
- Also banned there
- Pawn shops, check-cashing shops, adult uses
- Applies to
- Both standard and unified-development tract formulas
- Basis
- Named exclusion in the use regulations
Summary
Bensalem's Planned Commerce Park Unified Development (PCD-UD) District, the zoning classification covering large unified retail and office developments, expressly prohibits tattoo parlors as a retail or commercial service use under Code Section 232-493. The ban sits alongside a prohibition on pawn shops, check-cashing facilities, and adult uses in the same district, and applies to any tract developed under either the standard or unified-development use formula.
a.Retail sales and commercial services, provided however that no pawn shops, check cashing facilities, tattoo parlors, or adult uses shall be permitted. ... (3)Retail sales and commercial services. Stores for retail purposes only, provided no goods shall be displayed on the exterior of the premises excluding areas displaying supplies used for landscaping and gardening and all storage shall be within the confines of the building. ... Pawn shops, tattoo parlors, check cashing facilities and adult uses shall be prohibited within the PCD-UD District.
Full Breakdown
Section 232-493 governs which businesses can locate in the PCD-UD Planned Commerce Park Unified Development District, and it excludes tattoo parlors twice, once under each of the district's two development paths. Subsection (a)(2)a allows retail sales and commercial services as an ancillary use on up to 35 percent of a standard PCD-UD tract, but qualifies that permission by stating no pawn shops, check cashing facilities, tattoo parlors, or adult uses shall be permitted. Subsection (b)(3), which defines retail sales and commercial services for a unified development tract under Section 232-493(a)(3), repeats the same list of excluded uses after describing what is allowed: personal service shops such as beauty parlors, barber shops, dry cleaners, shoe repair, and tailoring.
That subsection closes by stating pawn shops, tattoo parlors, check cashing facilities and adult uses shall be prohibited within the PCD-UD District. Because the prohibition is written into the use regulations rather than a separate licensing chapter, a tattoo studio cannot obtain a use or occupancy permit for a PCD-UD address regardless of the tract's size or whether it is developed under the standard 65/35 formula or the unified-development option covering convenience stores, lodging, and recreation uses. The Township confines the ban to the PCD-UD district; the zoning ordinance does not repeat the same exclusion by name in the other commercial districts covered elsewhere in Chapter 232.
Violations & Fines
A tattoo or body-art business that opens in the PCD-UD district without qualifying for a different permitted use is operating an unauthorized use under Section 232-493, since the ordinance names tattoo parlors as expressly prohibited rather than merely unlisted, and the Zoning Officer can deny or revoke the occupancy permit and refer the property for zoning enforcement rather than treat the business as a variance candidate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a tattoo shop allowed anywhere in Bensalem?
What other businesses are barred alongside tattoo parlors in PCD-UD?
Does the ban apply to a unified development tract too?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Bensalem
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