Cleveland, OH Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

08, part of Chapter 225, which also covers barber shops. The Department sets license fees by category: $250 per year for a body piercing establishment only, $250 for a tattooing establishment only, and $325 for a combined body piercing and tattooing establishment. Operators who only need short-term authorization can get a temporary license instead, $50 per day for a temporary body piercing establishment, $50 per day for a temporary tattooing establishment, or $75 per day for a combined temporary body piercing and tattooing establishment. Standard annual licenses expire December 31st of the year issued regardless of when in the year they were obtained, so a shop licensed in October still renews at year's end.

Temporary licenses run on their own short clock, expiring on the fifth day after issuance. 08(b) incorporates all of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3730 by reference 'as it now exists and as it may be amended in the future,' meaning the state's tattoo and body-piercing statute, covering minimum sanitation, sterilization, minor-consent and inspection rules, is enforced directly as city law alongside the local fee schedule. 07, which once flatly prohibited tattooing in Cleveland subject to narrow exceptions, was repealed by Ordinance No. 737-01 (passed May 20, 2002), clearing the way for the licensed-establishment framework now in force. The current fee structure dates to Ordinance No. 1234-13, passed October 28, 2013.