Caddo Parish, LA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

The Unified Development Code defines Body Modification Establishment in Section 5.3 as an establishment that offers tattooing services, body piercing, and/or non-medical body modification, and it expressly excludes an establishment that offers only ear piercing as an ancillary service from that classification. Table 5-1, the parish's Use Matrix in Section 5.2, marks Body Modification Establishment with a P for permitted-by-right across the parish's commercial and downtown zoning districts, meaning an operator does not need special use approval or a public hearing before the Metropolitan Planning Commission to open in one of those zones; the use carries no S or E designation and no cross-referenced use-standards letter in Article 6.1, unlike uses such as bars or sexually-oriented businesses that face additional siting or spacing rules.

The Code's off-street parking schedule in Article 8 sets the ratio for the use at one parking space per 300 square feet of gross floor area. Body Modification Establishment is not listed as a permitted, special, or exception use in any of the parish's residential zoning districts, from R-A through R-MHP, so a shop cannot legally operate inside a house or on residentially zoned land and must locate on commercially or downtown-zoned property instead. The Code does not layer on a minimum distance separation from schools, churches, or residential districts for this use, a contrast with the 1,000-foot buffers Section 6.1.EE requires for sexually-oriented businesses.