Commerce City, CO Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Commerce City's code does not carry a dedicated tattoo or body-art establishment license, health-permit, or inspection division comparable to the master licensing program's specific chapters for solicitors, secondhand dealers, or massage businesses. A tattoo studio operating in the city is instead subject to the general business license requirement in Chapter 9: section 9-1001 provides that all business conducted within the city shall comply with the chapter's master licensing program, and section 9-1000 states the chapter's purpose is to regulate business activity, promote public health and safety, and implement a comprehensive citywide licensing program, without singling out tattoo services for extra permitting beyond that baseline.

The one tattoo-specific rule in the Code sits in Article VII, Offenses Involving Minors, at section 12-7004: it is unlawful for any person to tattoo any minor unless the minor's parent or guardian is present for, and has consented to, the procedure. The provision applies regardless of the minor's age and does not distinguish between a licensed tattoo artist and anyone else who applies a tattoo, so a parent-guardian presence-and-consent requirement attaches to every tattoo performed on a person under 18 anywhere in the city.

The section carries no separate fine schedule of its own, so a violation is punished under the Code's general penalty in section 1-5. Because the rule sits among Article VII's offenses involving minors rather than in the business-licensing chapter, enforcement runs through the Commerce City Police Department and municipal prosecution rather than through a code-enforcement licensing revocation process, and a studio's general business license is a separate compliance track from this minor-consent offense.