Charlotte, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

," alongside beauty shops, barbershops, tanning salons and nail salons. That single use category, not a dedicated tattoo license, is what governs where a tattoo or body art shop can operate: it is permitted, restricted or excluded by zoning district according to the UDO's Use Matrix (Table 15-1) the same as any other personal service business. 1 adds two location-specific conditions: in an IC-1 or IC-2 Institutional/Campus district, a personal service establishment must be owned and operated by, or formally affiliated with, the educational, medical, social-services or CCRC institution the campus serves, and in a Neighborhood 1 or Neighborhood 2 zoning district it is only allowed at all as a Neighborhood Commercial Establishment under that use's own prescribed conditions.

17 lists tattooing by name among prohibited customary home occupations, alongside kennels, veterinarian clinics, funeral homes, and vehicle sales. Actual health and sanitation licensing of tattoo artists (needle sterilization, bloodborne pathogen controls) runs through the state and Mecklenburg County Public Health Department rather than city zoning, which only controls where the business may physically locate and bars it from being run out of a house.